Survival
by journie19
Summary: Claire now owns Jurassic World. Blue is still in the park. A T-Rex is on the loose. Owen and Claire can't leave Jurassic world until they contain the assets and find Blue, but they are being hunted by the most fierce predator in the park. It isn't over yet.
1. Discovery

They heard an earsplitting roar echo throughout the empty park the morning after the Indominus incident. Claire didn't even look up from Owen's face at the sound; she merely looked at him and he looked at her. They both knew that this wasn't over. Not even close. Blue was still out there, and there was a T-Rex roaming free about the island. Not to mention the destruction all across the park, and, of course, the media. Claire could already see press helicopters flying towards Isla Nublar.

"I don't think so," said Owen, glaring at the press helicopters. He started to walk away, pulling Claire gently but insistently after him, leading her onto his motorcycle.

Claire shot him a look of gratitude. Let her clean up, find some clothes, take a shower, _process_ what she had just been through, and maybe she'd be ready for an interview. The public needed to see a strong figure at the head of a tragedy, and a dirty, crying girl was not going to cut it.

Claire wasn't paying attention to where he was driving her. She had her head pressed into his back, smelling the sweat and dirt that covered his body. She wasn't surprised to find that the smell no longer bothered her. In fact, she rather liked it.

Claire felt the bike stop, and maybe Owen realized she couldn't move, because he lifted her off the seat and carried her to an old picnic table outside his bungalow.

Her breath started coming in short gasps, and her whole body began to shake. Instead of seeing Owen's concerned face, she saw stars in her eyes, clouding her vision. She heard the roars of a dinosaur unleashed, the screams of her nephews, the sound of Owen getting attacked by a pteranodon.

"Claire," said Owen softly. She tried to look at him, but he placed her head between her knees, and rubbed her back in slow circles. She knew what was happening; panic attacks were not new to her.

 _Deep breaths_ , she told herself.

"You're okay," said Owen. "Everyone is okay."

She knew he was lying. People were dead. The whole park was destroyed. How would they ever reopen? Jurassic World was her park now since Simon was dead. It was her responsibility to make sure it stayed functioning.

Owen seemed to guess what she was thinking. "You aren't in this alone, you know. I said we were sticking together, and that's what we're going to do. Blue is still out there. Every species in the park is loose. We've got a lot of work to do."

Claire laughed shakily, which somehow helped her catch her breath. The stars in her eyes disappeared, but she was still shaking. Involuntarily, she slid off the picnic table onto the bench with Owen, who took her in his arms immediately. He rested his chin on her head, and for a brief moment, everything was all right.

"I'm sorry," Claire whispered, apologizing for everything: the Indominus, the terror the dinosaur had caused, and the fact that she had no idea what to do next.

Owen didn't respond. He wasn't good at talking to people, and Claire knew it. He pressed his lips against her forehead and leaned back against the table. Despite the full sunlight shining on them, both of them were asleep in a few minutes.

…

Claire woke slowly, wondering why she had slept with her shoes on, and why it was the middle of the night. What time had she gone to bed? Her pillow was harder than usual. Come to that, her bed was rock-hard too. And where was her blanket?

She didn't remember where she was until she opened her eyes and found that she was lying on top of Owen Grady, who looked so peaceful in sleep that it was hard to imagine him having any job other than a kindergarten teacher. His arm was wrapped protectively around her, to prevent her from slipping off the bench that they were very precariously balanced on.

She heard a sound, like a sharp scratching noise. She tried to turn around to see what it was, but suddenly Owen stirred beneath her and laid her flat on the bench, his arm forcing her down. She looked at him questioningly, but didn't struggle against his arm.

She saw his nostrils flare and knew that whatever was making that scratching noise was something they needed to stay away from.

"Come on," he whispered, his eyes focused on the thing behind them. Claire resolutely kept her eyes on him, terrified of what she couldn't see. "Follow my footsteps," said Owen, pointing to all the dry leaves around them, "step exactly where I step. Less noise that way."

Claire focused entirely on stepping where Owen stepped. She heard heavy stomps behind her, felt the ground shake, but still refused to look back. Darkness surrounded them, but she could see the faint glint of the starlight reflecting off the gun in Owen's hand.

"Where are we going?" Claire whispered.

"You said the Indominus ate the sibling?" Owen whispered back, ignoring her previous question.

"I saw it happen," Claire answered, "maybe two days after they hatched."

Owen led her deeper into the forest, finally stopping amongst a bunch of bushes with small but fragrant flowers on them. He picked a few of the flowers and threw them on the ground, spreading their scent all around them. He gave one to her with the barest hint of a grin on his face.

"Okay," said Owen. "So if the Indominus ate the sibling, and we just saw it get eaten, then what is _that_?" He pointed back through the trees towards his bungalow, where a huge dinosaur towered over the picnic table they had just been sitting on.

Claire cursed. It wasn't the T-Rex; the spines on its back and length of its forearms canceled out that possibility. She saw something white flashing in its claws, and gasped when she realized that it was a fragment of the shirt Owen had changed out of earlier that day.

"It has your jacket too," said Owen, referring to the suit jacket she had shrugged off her shoulders when Zach and Gray had been attacked in the Gyrosphere.

"We keep quiet, we get away," Owen said. "And then we figure out how that thing is still alive."

Claire looked at the Indominus. There was no blood on it, no scratches or any other evidence that it had just been through a fight with a T-Rex.

"Owen…I think…look at it," Claire said. "Does it look like it's been attacked recently?"

Owen cursed. "That's why Hoskins was in the lab. He was checking to see if Dr. Wu had kept their agreement."

Claire met his eyes, and she knew what he was going to say before he said it.

"It's a clone," Claire whispered in horror.

"And it has our scent," said Owen, looking grimly at the Indominus.

"Run," Claire said, and Owen took her hand, leading her back into the pitch-black park at full speed, with a hunting Indominus at their back and a T-Rex running free along the grounds in front of them.


	2. Run

_Just realized I forgot to put an Author's Note on that last chapter! Sorry! Anyways, onward we go!_

…

"Where are we going?" asked Claire, whose heels were sinking into the ground every time she took a step forward.

"Away," said Owen, who was leading her by hand through the forest. "Any ideas?"

They leaped over a fallen tree and slapped at the mosquitoes that swarmed around them.

"My apartment," suggested Claire, who felt that she had to have a shower before facing down another Indominus Rex. "We can clean up before doing anything else, but we can't just leave that Indominus in here. It would kill everything and eat anything. We'd never be able to reopen. And…I know you aren't going to leave Blue out alone. She needs you, Owen. You're her alpha."

Owen froze and turned around, causing Claire to smash straight into his chest. She could feel tremors running through his body, and it took her a minute to realize that Owen was scared. Not scared for himself, but afraid that his last (and favorite) raptor would be taken out.

"I'm not just worried about Blue, you know," whispered Owen.

"I know," said Claire. And she did know. Owen cared for her, more than he could say. And though it terrified her to think it, she felt the same for him.

…

Claire called Lowery while Owen was in the shower, and after answering all his questions about where she was and what to do about the reporters swarming Isla Nublar, she asked him to search the lab for anything, _anything_ , on the Indominus Rex and cloning.

After she hung up with Lowery, she looked at herself in the mirror. She was covered in small cuts from head to toe, and her feet had blisters on every single toe from running in those heels. Her hair hung limp and damp around her shoulders; for the first time in ten years, she hadn't blown it dry the second she got out of the shower. Instead she pulled it back into a short ponytail at the base of her neck. She ignored the makeup bag sitting on her dresser and bypassed the closet filled with various skirts and pantsuits. She instead went for her running clothes and dug out the long-forgotten-about hiking sandals from the bottom of her closet.

"I'm ready to go," she told her reflection.

"Good," came Owen's voice, startling her out of her thoughts.

He was leaning against the bathroom door with a towel wrapped around his waist. He had put his clothes in the wash the second they walked in the door; not because he particularly cared about them being clean, but to wash off his scent and hopefully confuse the Indominus clone.

Claire's eyes hungrily (and involuntarily) took in his appearance. The strong shoulders, the broad back, the muscular midsection. She wasn't even embarrassed to be checking him out; he was doing the same to her. She felt his eyes lingering on her legging-clad legs, then on her face, which he had never seen without makeup.

She saw the scars on his body; a thick white line that ran the length of his chest and a small, circular scar near his neck that looked suspiciously like a bullet wound.

"My back is worse," said Owen, gesturing to the bullet scar.

Claire walked towards him and traced the scars with her hand. She felt him stiffen and heard his breath catch, but she didn't stop.

He laughed roughly and gripped her back, slipping his hands beneath her shirt to graze her skin with his fingertips. Claire shivered and moved closer to him, feeling his hard muscle move against her.

She looked up at him, half expecting him to make a snide comment, but he instead lowered his lips to hers, and her mind went haywire.

Maybe he had been holding back when he kissed her in the park. Maybe he didn't like kissing her in front of her nephews and two hundred pterodactyls and pteranodons. Whatever the case, that kiss was nothing like this one.

This time, she wasn't caught by surprise. This time, it wasn't a kiss of gratitude or desperation. It was an uncontrollable urge both of them had been fighting for the past 24 hours. It had to be set loose.

And set loose, it was.

…

They left the apartment a few minutes later, both breathing heavily. Claire shook her hair loose of its ponytail to cover the small, purple marks that now decorated her neck. She blushed and grinned when she felt Owen tuck her hair behind her ear and run his fingers over the small bruises he had left on her.

Claire's phone rang from her pocket. "Lowery," she said, praying that he would have any information on the clone.

"Claire, this Wu guy sucks," said Lowery. She heard papers shuffling around in the background; presumably Lowery was still in the lab. "I can't find anything on that stupid not-dinosaur. The only thing I have from Wu's desk is a number for your British assistant."

"Zara?" Claire asked. Why would Wu need Zara's phone number? Claire had never asked Zara to go anywhere near the lab; most everything in there was classified.

"Keep looking, Lowery. And thanks. If you can find anything suspicious, pull it for us to see."

Lowery sighed. "Who needs a late-night snack? Certainly not overworked control personnel like me. Sure, I'll keep looking. Just meet me in the control room soon."

Claire bit her lip. She was aware that Zara had been slacking lately, leaving duties undone, forgetting to make appointments with stockholder for Claire, and other things of that sort. But what was she doing with Wu?

…

Claire knew it was too good to be true. They were doing so well, trekking across the park to the main control building. They had seen no dinosaurs (excluding a couple stray pterodactyls), no people, and (thankfully) no Indominus clones.

That is, until they saw the lights of the office in the distance and felt the ground shake beneath them.

"Come on," whispered Owen, and they sprinted towards the building as quietly as they could. Claire was grateful for her sandals; they were much quieter than her heels had been, even if (for some weird reason), she could run better in heels.

They heard a roar come from too close behind them, but it was higher pitched than what Claire had come to expect from the Indominus.

"T-Rex," muttered Owen, and slung his arm out to stop Claire. "Don't move a muscle," he said, and contradicted himself by turning around. He shifted position to block her from view as best as he could.

"You happen to have another one of those flares?" he asked.

Claire immediately felt like an idiot. Why had she not gotten another flare earlier in case the first one didn't work?

"No," she said, mentally smacking herself

She heard Owen scratch his chin. The T-Rex roared in frustration, smelling them, but not seeing them. If they moved, they were dead. If they didn't move, it would eventually sniff them out, and they'd still be dead.

"Give me your phone," whispered Owen as he silently pulled his gun off his back.

"What are you going to do?" Claire asked, eyeing the triangular building in front of her. They were so _close_.

Owen exhaled sharply. "Something stupid. When I say go, you walk. When you hear the gunshot, you run."

"Claire inhaled and looked forward, like she was about to run a race.

"Ready?" Owen asked. "GO!"

Claire started walking, and in the corner of her eye saw the tiny flashlight on the back of her phone waving around, effectively catching the T-Rex's attention.

She heard Owen's footsteps, and she couldn't resist turning around to see what was happening.

Owen was sprinting towards the T-Rex with her phone held out in front of him, keeping the dinosaur's attention on him and away from Claire. The T-Rex roared and started running towards Owen, its mouth wide open, showing every single one of its razor-sharp teeth. Owen stopped dead and dropped to one knee, muttering something before balancing the gun on his knee.

Claire heard the shot echo in the clearing, and saw the T-Rex flinch. It took a step backwards with its massive feet, trying to claw at its face with too-short arms.

"Run!" Owen yelled, and took advantage of the dinosaur's momentary confusion by flying towards the door.

Claire turned around and ran for it, fully expecting the T-Rex to be on her heels in seconds.

Owen caught up to her and together they shoved the doors open, bypassed the elevators, and ran up the stairs to the control room, slamming the doors behind them. They heard the angry, pained roars of the T-Rex, who had just lost her food for the night.

Claire sunk to the floor, and Owen followed suit. She looked at him, trying to be serious, but suddenly both of them were laughing uncontrollably.

"W-where did you shoot it?" Claire asked between fits of somewhat hysterical laughter.

Owen pushed a piece of hair out of her eyes and grinned. "I was aiming for its nostrils, but missed and hit it between the eyes."

They dissolved into laughter again and gradually huddled together against the doors, thankful for the reinforced steel building that was to be their shelter for the night.

"What the heck?" came Lowery's annoyed voice. "I go to get coffee for two seconds; now you two show up and I'm debating your sanity. And can either of you go anywhere without a two thousand pound predator following you around? That T-Rex is scratching up our front doors."

Owen snorted and Claire resumed her giggling. Lowery rolled his eyes.

"Come on, you two. You won't believe what InGen's been up to for the past two years."

 _AN: I seriously have some ideas for this one. I'm really excited about it! Review! And thanks for reading._


	3. Betrayal

_AN: What did you guys think of chapter 2? I'm trying to update this as frequently as possible; if anyone wants to be a beta, please let me know in the reviews! I'd be super happy to let anyone proofread this before I get it out there. Here's chapter 3!_

"That little spy!" exclaimed Claire as she looked over the files that Lowery had unearthed. "Zara had been working for InGen the whole time?"

Lowery nodded and flipped through a few of the correspondence letters between Zara and Wu. Owen was sitting in silent fury as he read InGen's report on his raptors. Claire was surprised he hadn't ripped the papers straight in half.

"She'd get the information on what Jurassic World was planning to do to stay on top, report it to Wu, and he'd tell that Hoskins guy," said Lowery. He looked up at Owen, who was still glaring at the paper he held in his hand. "Didn't one of your raptors kill him?"

"Yep," said Owen. "The idiot kept treating them like dogs. He thought he could pat them on the head and they'd immediately trust him." Owen rolled up his sleeves and turned his forearms to the light.

Claire gasped. There were scars running the length of both his forearms, thick and white, standing out starkly against his tan skin. "They did that to me when they were small enough that I could hold them. They trusted me, but that didn't prevent them from almost killing me. Velociraptors can only be tamed so much."

Claire reached out to run her fingers along his scars, like she had done when he had gotten out of the shower several hours before.

"You really care about them," she said, clasping his hand with hers.

He looked at the live feed data projected on the wall. The count of people read three: her, Owen, and Lowery were the only ones left. The security cameras depicted scenes of destruction and roaming dinosaurs. The Indominus clone was nowhere to be seen, and there had been no sign of Blue since the night of the T-Rex/Indominus fight.

"I worked with Blue the most," he said. "I have to find her."

Claire scooted towards him to lean her head on his shoulder. "Can you track Blue?"

Lowery looked up at them and hid a smile by rubbing his eyes tiredly. "I can try, but the system has been wacky ever since last night." He typed a few things in on his computer, muttering passwords and shaking his head. The computer started beeping loudly, and an image popped up on the screen of an overweight man in old-fashioned glasses wagging his finger at them.

"Ah-ah-ah," the image said," you didn't say the magic word." The man repeated himself over and over while Lowery tried typing a few more things in. Eventually he slammed his fist on his desk and muted the volume. All the other computers in the control room went black, and the live feed data shut off.

"What happened?" Owen asked.

"I hate InGen," Lowery grumbled. "They've hacked into our system so well that I can't backhack them. We can't shut the computers down all the way, otherwise they would get complete access to every electronic piece of data on these computers."

"They don't have that already?" Claire asked, eyeing the figure on Lowery's computer screen.

Lowery shook his head. "There are some impressive firewalls around the most secure files we have. But that means that the only information we can get is on these files right here." He gestured to the folders surrounding them.

"We can't track Blue?" Owen asked.

"We can't track anything," Lowery responded.

"What do you mean?" Claire asked.

Lowery started to answer, but Owen interrupted him. "He means that every dinosaur we have on this island is wild now, even if they don't know it. We have no way to control them, shock them if they get too close to a perimeter fence, track them, nothing."

Claire put her head in her hands. Two days ago, she was worried about the park's slowly declining popularity. Now, Jurassic World was the hottest topic all over the globe. Her phone had been ringing off the hook all morning from various newspapers and broadcast news companies, and her publicist had threatened to quit if Claire didn't issue a statement to the press. Claire had informed her publicist that all complaints and inquiries were being directed to the mainland communications office, and to contact them if she had a problem, much to Owen's enjoyment and her publicist's annoyance.

"We have to go back out there," said Claire, glancing at Owen. He was staring at the computer screen that was still informing them they hadn't said the magic word.

Lowery looked at the two of them like they were going crazy. "Why?"

"Because of that stupid clone out there. We have to contain the smaller dinosaurs, the ones lower on the food chain before doing anything else. The clone will sense their thermal radiation and instinctively go that way for food. It'll smell us too." He gestured to himself and Claire. "We might be able to corner it. Once we get that thing out of the way, we can rebuild this place."

"And how exactly are you going to 'get it out of the way'?" asked Lowery. "I mean, the T-Rex had enough trouble fighting the first one. I don't think two humans are going to have much luck with a copycat."

Owen looked at Claire. "That thing isn't natural. It's genetically engineered to begin with, and cloned on top of that. There has to be something, some mistake that Wu made…" he trailed off.

Claire picked up another file from the stack. They had come to the conclusion that Wu had cloned the Indominus out of default; nobody else had the wealth of knowledge that he possessed on the Indominus Rex. InGen was the real culprit, as Wu had been working for them. Claire wondered how many illegal side-projects had been sneaked out of the lab before anyone could find them.

Dr. Wu had taken most of his files and every single computer from the lab when he had been evacuated, but he had left a few things behind. Claire guessed Hoskins had been going the lab to retrieve these files before he had been eaten.

She began flipping through the folder. The first two pages were covered in complicated math formulas, all equating back to the number 10. The third page was a rough sketch of the Indominus Rex, with an area of its brain colored bright red. Claire furrowed her brow and read on. The next few pages were surveys and data on microchips and high-tech bombs.

"Owen?" she said. He was up in seconds, correctly assessing the tone of her voice. He peered over her shoulder at the file.

"What is this?" he asked, flipping to the back of the file. A sticker was in the back corner, and on it was written: _InGen: Project K._ Hoskins's signature was written beside the _Authorized by:_ line, and beside the _Carried out by:_ line was a different signature: Patrick Hunt.

"Oh shoot," said Owen when he read the signatures on the sticker. "I know Hunt. He was part of the research team with the velociraptors, just one position below Hoskins. He wanted to train Blue, Charlie, Echo and Delta, but they had already imprinted on me. He was pissed about it."

"I'm taking this with us," said Claire, slipping the file into her bag. "We can look at it some more later." She turned to Lowery, who was eyeing them warily.

"What's that on your neck?" said Lowery in a falsely innocent tone.

Claire pulled her hair out from behind her ears to cover the dark purple splotches under her jaw, ignoring the pink flush that was spreading across her face. Owen was trying to hide a sly grin by biting the inside of his cheek. Lowery looked between the two of them and rolled his eyes.

"Oh, I see. I sit in here alone working my tail off while you guys…"

"Yep," said Owen, earning him a smack on the arm from Claire. He winked at her and ruffled Lowery's hair.

"You knock my figurines off my desk and mess up my hair," muttered Lowery angrily, but the ends of his mouth twitched up. "Don't die out there."

"That's the general idea," said Owen. He grabbed three walkie-talkies and threw one to Claire and the other to Lowery. Claire snatched up her bag, which was now filled with water bottles and various snacks, and of course the strange file on Project K.

They left the control room, leaving Lowery alone with the hacked computers and stacks of papers, with the promise that he would contact them if he found anything else on InGen.

Claire was distracted on the way down to the ground floor. Project K was something she had never heard whisper of in her five years at Jurassic World. How many other side-projects did InGen have floating around? InGen had always been the least trustworthy of all Jurassic World's subcontractors, but to go this far, to hack into their system and have the best genetic scientist in the world working for them…what were they planning? And why did it involve cloning one of the biggest predators at Jurassic World? What if there were more genetic hybrids out there, waiting to be revealed by Wu? They had no way of knowing what they were heading into with the tracking system being offline. What if they were walking straight into a trap of some sort?

"I want to go to the raptor paddock first," Owen said when they got outside. The T-Rex was nowhere to be seen. They headed for the scratched-up Mercedes that had been their ride when they had been searching for Zach and Gray. "Just to make sure that Blue isn't there."

Claire nodded distractedly, still thinking about InGen. How many Jurassic World employees were secretly working for InGen because the latter had offered them more money?

"Hey," Owen said. He opened the car door for her and helped her up. "InGen is sneaky. I knew that the second they hired me. That plan to use the raptors to hunt the Indominus wasn't thought up on the fly. They had to have been throwing that idea around since before the Indominus was created. Wu knew that the Indominus was part raptor, which means he knew that the 'having the raptors hunt the Indominus' plan would fail, but he didn't say anything. He could've saved lives, but he stayed quiet."

"There's something huge here, Owen," Claire said.

Owen nodded. "We just don't know what it is yet."

 _AN: More should be coming soon! And seriously about the beta. If anyone wants to do it, your help will be much appreciated._

 _Review!_


	4. Blood

_AN: The plot is slowly coming together! I'm super excited for chapters 5 and 6. There will be bunches of cuteness between Owen and Claire, so be ready!_

Claire had only been to the velociraptor paddock twice before. The first time was to assess Owen when he first started working at Jurassic World, and the second was to cuss out Hoskins two nights ago.

Owen, however, had spent most of his time in the park at this paddock, working with the raptors and earning their trust. The closer they got to the paddock, the more visibly relaxed he got. Claire realized that he thought of this place as home, and she now understood why he had been so mad when Hoskins wanted to use the raptors to hunt the Indominus. It was like making Zach and Gray kill grizzly bear cubs in front of the mama bear: dangerous, and would probably result in their death.

"Why'd you start working here?" Owen asked. He was driving one-handed; the other was tapping out a rhythm on her thigh.

Claire shrugged her shoulders. "I started off as a control supervisor and worked my way up. It was never about the dinosaurs for me. I wanted to see how far I could go, how high up I could get. Until the other day, that is."

Seeing that brachiosaurus die had flipped a switch inside of her. She finally understood why Jurassic World existed; not to make money and be a successful theme park, but to make humans realize how very small they were. She realized that dinosaurs weren't just assets. They were actual living creatures that could feel pain.

Maybe that was why she had gotten so attached to Zach and Gray when they visited. If an animal could bring down something as huge as a brachiosaur, then what chance did two teenage boys have? Claire had never imagined herself settling down, getting married, having kids. But now…with the right person (she glanced at Owen sitting beside her), maybe someday she would. If she survived the next few days, anyways.

It was all about survival.

…

Owen didn't push her for more details on her past, for which Claire was grateful. Go back far enough, and the details get nasty. Maybe she trusted Owen with her life, but she wasn't ready to reveal the more…uncomfortable details about her past to him yet.

"What about you? Why did you start working here?" she asked. Owen moved his hand from her thigh to entwine it with hers. The roughness of his skin against her fingers gave her chill bumps all over, something Owen caught notice of right away. He began slowly stroking her hand with his thumb, relaxing her almost to the point of sleep. Claire hadn't realized how exhausted she was, or how hungry.

"I was deployed a few times when I was with the Navy," Owen began, "I saved a few guys and was promoted up a few ranks; eventually the Navy said they liked my 'leadership traits'. Then InGen showed up looking for recruits, and my name was on the top of the list. A few years later, here I am."

Claire opened up a bag of almonds while he talked, to calm her rumbling stomach. She tossed a few to Owen, who caught them in his mouth without missing a beat.

They pulled up to the velociraptor paddock and turned off the car. Owen looked around outside. "Weird to see this place abandoned."

Claire agreed with him. Something about the emptiness of the park made her feel eerie, like something was over her shoulder that she couldn't see. A branch snapped in the woods behind them, causing Claire to scream in shock and a flock of birds to fly out of the treetops screeching. Owen put a finger to his lips, signaling her to be quiet.

"Sorry," Claire said quietly. The uneasy feeling hadn't worn off with the shock of the birds; it had only grown stronger. "Something's out there." She gripped Owen's arm, searching for some reassurance.

Owen slung his gun across his shoulder. "I know."

Claire grimaced. Not the reassurance she was looking for, but perhaps the truth she needed to hear.

The velociraptor paddock was huge. There were little paths running in between the trees, probably used for training exercises. The observation bridge towered over their heads, making the clearing behind the cages look a lot bigger than it actually was.

"It's beautiful in here," Claire said. How had she never noticed how green the trees were, or how the flowering plants made the entire area smell like honey? She'd driven by it hundreds of times, but had never stopped to actually look at the place.

They started down one of the bigger paths that looked like it went straight into the woods to the border fence at the far end of the paddock. Several times Owen pulled her behind trees if he heard any type of movement in the woods. Once he prevented her from stepping right into a patch of vivid-green poison oak.

There was no sign of Blue, but there were several tame herbivores milling around in the undergrowth. Claire recognized a triceratops from the Kid's World area, still wearing a saddle and harness.

Owen stopped in a small clearing and looked around. There were four huge trees in the middle of the clearing, each with long scratch marks down the trunk. Owen stopped in front of the tree with the deepest marks on it and ran his fingers across them.

"When I work with Blue," he said, pulling something white out of his pocket, "I use different tactics to get her to obey me."

"Because she's the beta?"

He nodded and held up the white thing in his hand. "This makes a clicking noise that she's trained to recognize. It means I need her attention."

"I thought you whistled for her attention," said Claire.

Owen grinned and whistled, sharp and loud. "Either one works. If she was closer, I'd use this." He held up the clicker. "If she's anywhere in this paddock, she should respond to that whistle. This clearing is designed to project sound."

They waited for a moment, listening intently. Claire heard something coming through the trees, much too loud to be a velociraptor.

An ankylosaurus (which Claire only recognized because of its clubbed tail) came lumbering into the clearing at top speed, which wasn't very fast because its legs were so short. Owen cocked his gun and ran in front of Claire. She instinctively gripped his shoulders, but stood her ground.

"What are you running from?" Owen muttered to the ankylosaurus. He looked into the forest, but the leaves in the treetops were too thick to see anything taller than a raptor. "It isn't Blue. She'd come straight to me."

"It can camouflage," whispered Claire, whose hands were now shaking.

Owen cursed and yanked her forward, away from the ankylosaurus and whatever was following it. They heard a deep roar, and the unmistakable sound of trees being knocked down as something huge pursued them.

"That's not a T-Rex," shouted Claire. She hurdled over a tree stump. "Where are we going?"

"There's a pit," yelled Owen, who was looking behind him for any sign of the Indominus, yet still running through the woods without hitting any trees. Claire had a sudden vision of Lowery trying a stunt like that, and giggled silently at the thought of him smashing straight into a tree.

"It's here in case someone gets trapped out here and the raptors are angry. They can jump into the pit and close the door over themselves. It should be strong enough to protect us…" he trailed off.

Claire heard a loud cracking noise and jumped out of the way as a tree fell right into her path.

"It's right on top of us!" she screamed.

Owen muttered something she couldn't hear.

Claire could see the Indominus Rex in her peripheral vision, huge and scaly with spikes covering its whole back. Its teeth were bloody, like it had eaten recently. It was chasing them, but it seemed to be holding back, like it wasn't going in for the kill.

 _That makes no sense_ , thought Claire. _The other one killed because it wanted to. This one is hunting us, yet it isn't coming at us with its full strength…why?_

The Project K file flashed into her mind and if she wasn't running for her life, she would've yanked the thing out of her bag to read it.

"Owen!" she yelled. "I don't think this thing wants to kill us."

Owen's eyes narrowed and he slowed down for a fraction of a second to process what Claire had said.

That was his undoing, because in second that he wasn't running as fast as he could, the Indominus shot out one of its jet-black forearms and slashed at Owen with its claws, slicing diagonally across his body. Owen looked down in shock, groaned, and slipped to the ground, blood streaming all over the place.

Claire screamed Owen's name so loudly that unassuming pachys in the Gyrosphere unit looked up from their grazing, wondering what kind of bird an 'Owen' was.

The Indominus cocked its head at Owen, like it was deciding what to do next. Claire was frozen. She had seen the first Indominus rip through people without hesitation, and knew that this one could do the same. They used their teeth as their primary weapon- not their claws. But the Indominus had used its longer forearms to wound Owen, to weaken him.

Claire heard a weird howl, like something out of a horror movie, and the ankylosaurus that had ran across the clearing earlier came waddling out of the woods, gnashing its teeth at the Indominus. Claire unfroze and ran to Owen and stood over him, throwing out her arms in a gesture of protection. The smell of the Indominus's breath -rotting animal flesh and blood- was almost enough to make her throw up. The Indominus was looking with its beady little eyes at the ankylosaurus. Should it kill the humans, or should it kill the little thing that was annoying it?

The ankylosaurus slammed its tail into the powerful hind legs of the Indominus, and that seemed to make up its mind. It turned and the ankylosaurus tried to run away, still swinging its tail madly, taking out trees and various plant life.

Claire didn't watch to see the outcome of that particular battle. Instead, she turned to Owen, whose eyes were fluttering rapidly. She heaved him up and he leaned heavily on her, muttering an endless stream of words that she was too scared to understand.

"Come on," she said, and they attempted to make their way through the woods. Owen's legs were trembling too much for them to make much progress, but Claire couldn't feel the ground shaking- the Indominus wasn't following them.

Claire didn't even stop to ponder why it hadn't taken them out when it could kill them so easily, though she did think it was odd. It wasn't natural predator behavior.

"The pit," Owen groaned. "It's beyond the stream."

Claire looked up and saw a wide but shallow river flowing slowly through the trees in front of them. Just past the stream was a large steel trapdoor, almost unnoticeable because of the leaves that were strewn across it.

"Go through the river," Owen said. His face was now devoid of all color as the blood seeped out bright red from his wound. "It'll confuse it. Get rid of our scent."

Claire led him carefully across the slippery stones that made up the riverbed. She looked back into the woods so frequently that it looked like she had a neck twitch, but the Indominus didn't come back.

Eventually they crossed the river. Claire now shivered from the cold water; the sun was beginning to set, and the air got cooler with every step they took. Owen pressed his thumb against the fingerprint recognition pad on the trapdoor, and it slid open, revealing a staircase descending into darkness.

Claire relaxed for just a moment before feeling Owen slump unconscious against her, the front of his shirt and pants now completely red with blood.

 _AN: Gah. Action scenes! I know that the behavior is a little weird for the Indominus, but never fear! I have a plan. A wonderfully awful plan. (Insert evil laugh here). Thank you so much for your feedback, and for reading my little story!_

 _Review!_


	5. Sew

_AN: To the people confused about the animal's behavior, yes, I do have a plan! No worries guys. I know they aren't acting natural, and it'll all be revealed as the story progresses. Read on!_

In all her life, Claire had never imagined being in a situation like this. She was sitting at the bottom of the dark pit with her head in between her knees, telling herself that she couldn't just sit down and cry. She had to get up. She had to fix Owen.

Problem was, could she do it?

The wound was an ugly slash across Owen's body, running from the left side of his ribcage to his right hip. It wasn't as bad as she initially thought; it was longer than it was wide, but still pretty deep. Blood was slowly seeping from it, but all in all, it could've been worse.

Claire had tried to use her walkie-talkie to contact Lowery, but she only got static. Her phone was long dead, buried somewhere in the bottom of her bag.

She was completely alone.

"No," said Claire, her voice echoing strangely off the walls. "I'm not alone. Owen is here, God is here, and I can do this."

Saying it out loud gave her some courage, and she got up, feeling for a light switch. She found one shortly, and dim lights flicked on, illuminating a circular room stocked with first-aid kits, nonperishable food, water, and even a few folded-up cots.

The lights showed the bloodstains on the stairs where Claire had dragged Owen down them, slowly shifting his weight until they hit the bottom of the pit. The trapdoor had closed automatically, shutting them in.

Owen's face was so very pale. Images started flashing through Claire's mind: Owen bleeding out, his face turning blue, his body going cold. She took several deep breaths to calm herself, forcing the images out of her brain.

She knelt beside him and held his face in her hands. He was so beautiful, even though his skin was a sickly color. She pressed her lips to his, felling the warmth of his skin and knowing that somehow, everything would be okay. But she had to get to work on him, and quick.

"Please don't die," Claire whispered in his ear, and she went to work, popping open one of the first aid kits to reveal peroxide, several sponges, and –Claire almost cried with relief- a suture kit.

She stripped Owen of his shirt and pants, leaving him in just a pair of bloodstained boxers.

"Sorry about this," she muttered, and twisted open the bottle of peroxide, pouring the clear liquid all over the cut, where it mixed and foamed with the blood, turning nasty orange color. She concentrated most of the flow on his hip, which was where most of the blood seemed to be coming from.

Claire thought back to her childhood with Karen. They had lived in a busy home, with a mom who worked full-time, and a constantly on-call trauma surgeon for a dad, who made sure his daughters knew that they were going to have well-paying careers in their future. "No deadbeats in the Dearing home" had been his slogan.

Claire had never fully appreciated him or his job until now, when she fell back on all the secondhand medical knowledge she had picked up in childhood.

"When dealing with a trauma wound in the field, there are three steps you need to take," her father had said.

"Step one: assess. How bad is the wound? What tools do you have on hand? Is it worth operating on, or are they going to die anyway?"

"Step two: disinfect. Their injury might not kill them, but microbes certainly can. You keep that cut clean."

"Step three: operate. Do anything and everything you can to make their situation better. If that means doing nothing, then do nothing. If that means surgery, then you better toughen yourself up and help them."

Claire had done two of the three steps, and she knew what was next.

Operate. Or, in this case, stitch Owen up to prevent him from bleeding out. The cut was just narrow enough so that she could do it, but Claire was wary of the fluid lingering near the edges of the slash, making his skin slippery. She didn't want to injure him further, so she grabbed a sponge to clean him up a little bit, mopping up all the stray liquid on his body.

Claire took a deep breath and looked at her hands. They were shaking slightly.

"Okay," she said. "It's like sewing a blouse. Or a leather jacket. With blood."

 _But practice makes perfect_ , she thought, repeating another of her father's slogans to herself. She snatched up the suture kit and dug through Owen's pockets for the switchblade she knew he always carried. She dragged the blade across the bottom of her shirt, ripping the bottom half of the garment completely off.

Claire experimented a few times, sewing the torn material together with the thinnest thread in the kit. She worked quickly out of necessity; Owen couldn't last much longer with that wound open. When she was satisfied with the shirt, she got a new needle from the suture kit and doused in peroxide. The thickest, most sinewy thread would do best on a gash this large, so that was what Claire threaded the now-sterile needle with.

She paused a moment and listened to the steady sound of Owen's breath. He had been breathing so raggedly when she dragged him down the stairs; it terrified her to think that she might lose him.

The calm expression on his face was somehow reassuring. Maybe she _could_ do this without fainting or making anything worse.

Steeling herself, Claire knelt down and pulled Owen's limp body close to her. She started at his hip, where the gash was deepest, and pushed the needle shakily through his skin, tying the thread off when it was all the way through.

 _Not so bad_ , she thought, and went in for another pass.

Her hands gradually became steadier as she deftly continued her work, periodically pouring peroxide over the needle to keep it clean.

If only her father could see her now.

Claire's mind strayed while she worked, as it often did. The Indominus had acted so strange back in that clearing, wounding when it could've killed. And the first Indominus (along with most other two-legged dinosaurs) would have used its head as its primary weapon, not its forearms. Granted, the Indominus Rex had longer arms than some two-legged dinosaurs, but still. It wasn't natural animal behavior.

 _Maybe because that thing isn't natural_ , she thought, and Owen coughed loudly, making Claire jump so much that she nearly skewered herself with the needle. She laughed and tried to calm her rapidly beating heart.

"Please don't be waking up yet," she told him. He would jostle the open part of the gash if he woke up too soon, and she did not want him to lose any more blood.

Finally, when the tips of Claire's fingers were going numb from overuse and she had begun to worry that there wouldn't be enough thread to finish the stitches, she reached the end of the cut, tying the thread off in a knot to secure them.

She ran her fingers over her handiwork, pushing her sweaty red hair behind her ears. The stitches were a bit uneven and probably every plastic surgeon's worst nightmare, but the job was done. Owen would have a nasty scar, but at least he wouldn't bleed out.

There were a few bandages in the first aid kits, and Claire laid them flat over the sutures as best she could, taping the ends down with neon smiley-face medical tape.

Claire stood up to put the first aid kit away, and then promptly fell back down- her knees had given out. She looked at herself: the blood spattered on her hands and arms, her ripped shirt and unbrushed hair, and suddenly realized how extremely nauseous she felt.

She ran up the stairs, taking them two at a time, praying the trapdoor would open automatically because she wouldn't have time to search for a button to open it. Thankfully, it did open by itself when she reached a certain stair, and Claire threw up all over the grass surrounding the pit, tying an elastic band around her hair to keep it out of the way.

"Urgh," she groaned. She felt disgusting, and risked walking over to the river to washed herself off, scouring the blood and dirt off with a rather leafy plant she hoped wasn't poison oak.

The paddock was quiet now, with only birds chirping in the trees to break the silence. Claire shivered as the hairs on the back of her neck stood up, like someone was watching her. She splashed a bit of water on her face and went back to the pit with unnecessary speed, not wanting to get caught alone by an animal she couldn't fight.

…

On a boat some fifty miles off the shore of Jurassic World, a blonde girl with freckles and an abnormally small nose sat and laughed at the footage her surveillance tape had captured.

"Patrick! Get in here. That girl just puked all over everything!"

"Told you they weren't dead," came Patrick's grim voice from the doorway. "Next time, try to get the dinosaur to actually _do_ what you want it to do, Bridgette."

Bridgette huffed. "If you're so good at it, you try it next time."

Bridgette shivered at the grin on Patrick's face. It was creepy when he smiled.

"I will."

…

Claire, who still felt extremely sick, made herself eat some of the food and drink some water that was stocked in the pit while she cleaned the blood off of Owen. He was still very pale, and in the back of her mind, Claire knew they would have to get him some actual medical help. He had lost too much blood. But for now, her amateur stitches would have to do. She put a pillow from one of the cots under his head and covered him with a blanket, grabbing one for herself as well. The pit was damp and cold, but at least it was safe.

The dim lights were just bright enough that she could read, so she pulled the Project K out of her bag and started pulling out papers, laying them out side by side to cover most of the floor in the pit. She saw a gradual progression in the complication of the notes, though the math formulas were still confusing.

Most of the pages were drawings of microchips and remote-control robots. There were several sketches of dinosaurs; Claire saw the Indominus, a pterodactyl, and even an ankylosaurus just like the one that had attacked the Indominus out in the clearing.

There were no clear sentences that fully explained the notes: just symbols, drawings, and the irritating math formulas that centered on the number 10.

Claire groaned in frustration. First thing in the morning, she was going to find a place where she could radio in to Lowery, to see what he had found. She was sick of not having control over her park.

 _AN: Review! Next chapter we hear Owen's opinion on this Project K stuff. Oh, InGen. So sneaky._


	6. Stay

_AN: Chaaapta 6! Oh! Remember how I said in the last chapter that we'd hear Owen's opinion on Project K? I lied. That'll be tomorrow's chapter! My bad._

Claire woke up with a massive headache and a stiff back from sleeping on the stone floor. Her dreams had been filled with terrified screams, drawings of dinosaurs, and lots of blood, which was so close to reality that Claire wasn't one hundred percent sure that they had actually been dreams.

"Tylenol," she muttered, rooting through her bag for the little bottle of painkillers she always carried with her. Headaches were very common in her line of work.

She found the bottle in a small cosmetics bag, along with a tiny round mirror. Claire held the mirror up to herself and was almost scared by her reflection. Her hair was horribly frizzy, sticking up in every direction, but that wasn't the scariest part. Her light green eyes, typically so cool and critical-looking, were now fierce and intimidating with just a shadow of gentleness that she didn't even know she possessed.

Claire was changing.

She took the pills with some food, wolfing down a granola bar at top speed.

Owen was still out of it, but perhaps he had a bit more color in his face than yesterday. The giant knot of worry in Claire's chest shrank a little when she saw the flush in his cheeks, and it all but disappeared when she changed his bandages and saw no irritation or redness near the stitches. No infection. Thank God. Claire might be able to handle blood better than most people, but infection thoroughly freaked her out. It was too unpredictable.

When she finished changing Owen's bandages, she turned to Owen's bloodstained clothes. He couldn't stay mostly naked forever, and she blushed at the thought of what he'd say if he knew she'd stripped him down to his boxers. Claire looked at him now, more for her benefit than his. He was built stockier, more powerful than some men, with thick bands of muscle on his arms and legs, and a strong yet not overly defined core. Maybe he didn't need clothes after all. Or, at least, he was going to have to go without a shirt because his was ripped beyond repair. His pants, however, could probably be salvaged with a good wash. So that what Claire did, in the river outside the pit. She still felt as if someone was watching her, but she had more courage in the morning, and the fresh air was invigorating.

Last week, Claire had been a businesswoman who had risen through the ranks at Jurassic World so fast that people thought she had been sleeping with Mr. Masrani. Now she wondered if she even had a job, much less an amusement park. Last week, the Indominus Rex had been nothing more than a powerful asset meant to keep Jurassic World at the top of its game. Now it was dead and she was running from its clone. Last week, Owen Grady was simply a good-looking raptor trainer that Claire avoided because of their awful first date. Now she wondered if she'd even be alive without him. Now she was feeling things for him that scared her, and he could die from blood loss. Now she didn't know how to do life without him, and Claire didn't know how to handle that fact. Owen was so…steady. Unwavering. Claire needed that. She needed _him_.

 _He's dying_ , said a sly voice in her mind. Claire slammed Owen's pants into the river with more force than was necessary, stirring up mud from the bottom of the riverbed and causing the water to go from clear to a murky brown color.

"He is _not_ dying," she said aloud.

 _He's lost too much blood._

"Shut up," Claire told the voice, wringing the water out of Owen's now clean pants.

Thankfully, it did.

…

Claire hung Owen's pants up on a rack in the pit and moved to sit beside him where he lay, his chest rising and falling steadily. The Project K papers were still scattered all over the place, but Claire didn't have the energy for them. Instead she looked at Owen, whose coloring really did look better.

Claire leaned in to kiss him and wasn't very surprised when she felt him kiss her back, his eyelashes fluttering gently against her cheek as he slowly came to consciousness.

She deepened the kiss even though an irrational part of her brain wanted to punch him for daring to get hurt.

He groaned and tried to say something, but Claire had turned away from him, hiding her face in her hands. She tried to cry silently but failed. Owen let her cry, shifting close enough to her that he could rest his hand on her thigh.

Owen eventually broke the silence. "That was a nice way to wake up." He tried to grin but grimaced instead, reaching his hand towards the bandages that stretched across his chest and hip. Claire gained control of her emotions long enough to smack his hand away before he could damage her hard work.

"No!" she yelled, with much more ferocity than she had intended. "You do not touch those. You do not move until I say so. You almost died, and I fixed you. I _fixed_ you. You are not leaving me alone out here, not when I need you to _stay with me_."

She collapsed on the uninjured part of Owen's chest, and even if it hurt him, he gave no indication. He wrapped one arm around her and held her as tight as he could without hurting himself, lifting his head to kiss her lips.

"I'm not leaving you," he said moments later. "I'm staying right here."

"You better," she said, giving him her best I'm-the-boss-so-listen-to-me glare.

Owen laughed. "Is that supposed to intimidate me?"

"Yes!"

"Sorry to disappoint you babe, but I run with raptors. I don't get scared easy."

" _Babe_?'

Owen laughed again and Claire let him, relishing the feeling of being in his arms. He was okay. He was going to be okay. She hadn't let him die. He was okay. Everything was okay.

"Um, Claire?" Owen asked. Claire raised her head up to look at him, and saw that he was half-grinning. "Why am I half naked?"

Claire's smile disappeared as she recounted the events from yesterday. Owen sat in silence, looking at the stairs that were streaked with his blood. He touched his bandages gingerly, wincing when he pressed a little too hard against his sewn-together skin. Claire talked for a seemingly endless time, but Owen never seemed to lose attention. She felt better when she was done, like a load had been taken off of her shoulders. She wasn't alone anymore, and it felt amazing.

He was silent for a long time after Claire finished her speech. Owen laid his head back on his pillow and scratched his leg absentmindedly. "You," he said in a quiet voice, "are a lot stronger than you get credit for."

Claire exhaled the breath she had been holding. "I was so afraid." She blinked rapidly, her eyes betraying her by leaking tears again, which she wiped away in frustration.

Owen motioned for her to lie down beside him, so she did, curling into him as best she could without touching the bandages.

"I owe you my life," Owen said, his chest rumbling against Claire's cheek with every word he spoke. "Twice."

Claire smiled at that, remembering the liberating moment where she had shot the pteranodon and Owen had kissed her for the first time.

"You helped me hunt down my nephews," Claire said. "We'll call it even for now…just don't make me have to do it again, okay?"

"You got it."

…

They stayed like that in the pit for several hours, huddled against each other. Claire gave Owen some carb-filled snacks to raise his blood sugar a bit, and loaded him up on Tylenol. He hadn't complained about any pain, but she could tell he was hurting by the look in his eyes. Maybe the Tylenol wouldn't help much, but at least it was something.

Claire studied Owen as they lay together, committing everything about his appearance to her memory. She noticed that his eyelashes were so long that they touched the dark circles under his eyes when he blinked. His jawline was particularly fascinating, accentuated by his unshaven facial hair. She traced it with her fingers, over and over again.

Owen was memorizing her too, though she didn't know it.

Claire had almost fallen asleep against Owen when she remembered Lowery. She cursed, sitting up abruptly. Where was her walkie-talkie?

"What are you doing?" said Owen, who was trying to sit up to see Claire better.

"Ha! Found it," said Claire, grabbing the walkie-talkie from underneath one of the Project K papers. "Be right back. Got to call Lowery. Oh, he's going to kill me."

"You are not going up there alone!" said Owen, who had given up his efforts to move and was lying flat on his back again. He turned his head towards her so she could see his frown. She glared at him until he relented, saying grumpily, "You hear any noise, you get back down here. You see anything weird, you get back down here. If you feel uncomfortable-"

"I get back down here," finished Claire. "And anyways, I went out alone last night and this morning." Owen frowned again, but she ignored it, walking up the stairs and climbing out of the trapdoor when it opened. Yesterday she had attempted radioing to Lowery from the pit, and it hadn't worked. She probably could reach him from up here, where trees instead of concrete surrounded her.

He radioed in almost immediately, berating her for ignoring the walkie-talkie for almost 24 hours. He have her the "you-could've-been-dead-what-would-I-have-done" speech, to which Claire responded that Owen nearly _had_ died, and that shut Lowery up immediately.

"Do you need anything?" he offered, and Claire knew that Lowery felt bad for yelling at her. He usually waited for her to ask him for assistance before he offered his help. "I've found lots of info on this Project K thingy. Seriously, Claire. InGen is sick."

Claire chewed her lip nervously. "I'll hear about that later. Right now, I need to know if those bags of type O blood are still in the lab. Wu used to keep some in there for his experiments; he liked to see if the dinosaurs reacted to the smell of blood right after they hatched." She heard a chair creak in the background and pictured Lowery walking down the breezeway towards the lab.

"Why? Is Owen that bad?"

"Yes. He isn't saying anything about it, but he really needs some help."

"What are you gonna do? Give him a blood transfusion?"

Claire rubbed her temples. She had an idea, but she wasn't sure if it would work. "I have someone I can call who can walk me through it. Maybe. Get an IV kit while you're there, will you?"

"Yeah," Lowery groaned. "I better not poke myself with that needle, Claire. You'll owe me big time if I do."

Claire rolled her eyes.

…

Lowery managed to get everything Claire needed from the lab, and didn't even poke himself with the needle. Maybe he didn't like Owen all that much, but Claire did, and Lowery could see that. So he did what she asked and only complained about it a little.

He was congratulating himself for finding everything successfully and was just about to head back to the control room when he heard voices. A girl's, falsely happy, saying something about 'that stupid raptor guy'.

Lowery froze just outside of the control room. He peeked his head around the corner and saw two people: the girl, whom he guessed was the source of the fake-happy voice, and a tall dude with dark hair and muscles that rivaled Owen's. Both of them were wearing vests that said INGEN on the back in big red letters.

"She was talking to someone on that radio," said the guy in a gravelly voice. They were staring intently at a laptop on the girl's lap; all the other computers in the room were still in shutdown mode. "There's a third person in the park."

The girl laughed, but it sounded more like a cackle to Lowery. "We can hunt him down, too. What animal do you want to control this time? I'm thinking a raptor. We haven't tested one of those yet."

The guy laughed, which was sounded so menacing, it made the hairs on Lowery's arms stand up. "Sure. Raptor it is."

Lowery turned and ran for it, tiptoeing to the elevator, thankful that he had (for some reason) thrown the files he wanted to show Claire into the messenger bag on his shoulder. There was an emergency control room over the T-Rex paddock. He could go there. If he wasn't eaten first, that is.

 _AN: Longest chapter yet! I love you guys for reading this. Thank you for everything; you give me motivation to continue!_

 _Review!_


	7. Save

_AN: Project K, Project K, Project K_

"Hunt is _in_ the park?" asked Owen furiously. He was sitting against one of the damp walls in the pit, eating some dried cherries. His condition had improved somewhat over the past two days, with Claire changing his bandages at regular intervals. The skin was starting to heal now, and there was still no sign of infection. He was still very pale, with dark circles under his eyes from blood loss, and Claire doubted he'd be able to walk for long without passing out, but he was slowly getting better.

Claire had gone above ground again to check in with Lowery, who had shared the disturbing information that the guy who signed off on the Project K file, Patrick Hunt, was in Jurassic World with a tech-savvy assistant.

"Yeah," said Claire, glancing up at him from the Project K paper she was reading. Over the past day and a half, Project K had become somewhat of an obsession for her and Owen. They had been speculating for hours, throwing theories back and forth until they ran out of ideas and were simply trying to decipher the equations covering some of the pages. "Lowery had to relocate to the control room above Paddock Nine."

"They were talking about using raptors to hunt Lowery?"

Claire laid the papers down on her lap. "That's the part I don't get. Lowery said they were picking what dinosaurs to use as some sort of experiment. They said something about _controlling_ the raptors, but how could they do that? Blue is the only one left, and she only trusts you."

Owen exhaled. "If InGen had a clone of the Indominus, Jurassic World's most guarded secret, then couldn't they have clones of raptors, too?"

Claire shivered at the thought. How many unknown dinosaurs were running on the grounds? And how could InGen control them? Owen had already established the fact that he never had control over his raptors, and he'd been working with them for years. There was no sure way for InGen to have complete control over any dinosaur, was there?

The most frustrating thing about all of this was the fact that Claire knew the answer was _so close_ , maybe on the very notes they were studying, but there was just one small thing missing, a linchpin that held the whole thing together. If they could uncover that one thing, maybe they could figure out what Project K was, and how to stop InGen from carrying it out.

…

Claire and Owen moved the next morning. They had been in the pit too long, especially if InGen had access to the security cameras placed throughout the park; they could be watching them the second they stepped out of the pit.

As a matter of fact, Patrick and Bridgette _did_ watch Claire and Owen from the moment they emerged from the pit, Owen leaning on Claire for support. Patrick took note of Owen's weak state and told Bridgette, who was sitting cross-legged in a desk chair, fingers hovering over a small but intricate remote control, to leave the Indominus Rex where it was. She frowned. Bridgette hated missing a chance to play her favorite game: hunt the people. But Patrick had a plan. Lull them into a false sense of security; make them think they were safe. Then go in for the kill.

"Are you sure you don't want to at least wrap a blanket around your shoulders?" Claire was asking. She didn't like Owen going around without a shirt in his condition. What if a tree branch hit one of the stitches or they were attacked again?

"I'm fine," Owen insisted. "Besides. It's ninety degrees out here. Too hot for a blanket."

Claire bit the inside of her cheek, wrapping Owen's arm around her shoulders to help him walk to Paddock Nine. The little color in his face had faded to white the moment he had stood up, but there wasn't anything she could do about it until they got to Lowery. And if her father wouldn't help her, Claire had no idea what she'd do. It was literally a life or death situation.

She was beginning to have symptoms of PTSD: nightmares, depression, flashbacks. Owen was too, but he hid it much better than she did. Claire supposed that was from his time in the Navy; Owen was no stranger to post-traumatic stress disorder.

He had woken her the night before, saying she had been screaming his name and crying in her sleep. She had curled into him, her body shaking, and he had simply said, "I know. I feel it too."

It was like her senses were on overdrive. Any sound made in the woods, any chirp of a bird or snap of a twig had her heart beating so rapidly that she could almost hear it. More than once on their walk across the park, Owen had tightened his arm around her when he felt her get tense, a silent way of telling her that everything was okay.

But how long before something smelled them? How long before the Indominus showed up again, ready to finish off the both of them? How long before InGen's people appeared? They couldn't keep running forever.

"Claire," Owen said. They were entering the Gyrosphere field, staying out in the open so they could see anything that approached them. "Shut the gate behind you. There's a heard of Pachys in here."

Claire almost asked why before remembering that the only reason they had stayed in the park was to contain the smaller dinosaurs to distract the Indominus. She almost laughed at how naïve they had been, thinking that nobody else would be interested in Jurassic World after the big escape fiasco. Of _course_ people wanted to take over. It was the perfect opportunity. And it was obvious that InGen had been planning this for a while. They just hadn't been counting on one determined businesswoman, a lovable computer geek, and an unstoppable raptor trainer to get in their way.

She shut the gate with a loud slam, startling the small herd of grazing Pachys into a small stampede before they all started head butting one another. Owen snickered at them, the first sound of happiness she'd heard in days, since they escaped the T-Rex and laughed themselves into tears.

Claire smiled, a genuine one, and it felt very unnatural, like she was stretching unused muscles. Owen saw her smiling and he flashed her a grin, flipping a piece of her hair behind her ear with his thumb. His fingers just barely brushed her jawline, sending shivers down her back.

"You have a great smile, Claire," he said. They stepped into a particularly high patch of grass; the brownish yellow plant stretched all the way up to Claire's knees. "I hope I get to see it more, after all this crap is over with."

Claire's smile widened. "So long as I get to see yours, Mr. Grady."

Owen winked at her and they continued on, momentarily forgetting that they were alone with the fiercest predators in the world. For a short while, they were nothing more than two people falling in love.

…

They reached Paddock Nine in good spirits, proud of themselves for shutting the Pachys in. At least that was one species they no longer had to worry about. Claire was thankful, though, when they got up to the control room where Lowery sat waiting with the bag of blood in the small fridge typically used for employee lunches.

Owen was clearly exhausted, all his energy spent from the walk. Claire had informed him of her tentative plan, to transfuse the blood, and he had only nodded, too tired to say anything. Claire refused to let herself worry about him. He was _going_ to be okay.

She was, however, worrying immensely about calling her father for help. It had been five years since she'd last talked to him, to inform him that she had gotten a job at Jurassic World. He had disapproved, wanting her to find a job with more stability, less futuristic. They had argued, and Claire had been afraid to call him back ever since. She had wanted to, though, and now his number was committed to her memory from the times that she'd stared at it, debating whether or not to call. Now she had no choice if Owen was to recover.

Claire took a deep breath and ignored Lowery's questions about what had happened in the raptor paddock, instead asking him to get the blood and IV kit ready. Lowery, who was looking very disheveled, like he had ran a long way, was oblivious the nervous energy that surrounded Claire. Owen, however, was not.

He talked to her in a soothing tone, telling her she could do this, joking that he had pretty good veins, so she shouldn't have too much trouble with the IV. Some of Claire's worry vanished, knowing he had confidence in her medical abilities.

Finally, when she could push it off no longer, Claire grabbed the old landline phone attached to the wall and dialed the number, praying her father would pick up. He _did_ pick up, and suddenly Claire knew what to say, like she'd rehearsed it for years.

"Daddy? It's Claire. I-," her voice broke when she heard him gasp, like he had been waiting for this for a long time. She paused, giving her voice a chance to recover. Her dad was stammering on the line, not sure what to say. "I need your help."

…

Claire supposed that, all in all, it had gone well. Her father had taken a while to respond at first, and when he did speak, he sounded very much like he was extremely uncomfortable. Claire had put him on speakerphone while he walked her through what needed to be done, while Lowery sat in the background, fiddling with some papers in his bag, muttering to himself. Owen was the perfect patient, not even wincing when it took Claire nine tries with the IV needle to get it in a vein. The transfusing process took forever and was made very complicated by lack of materials, but eventually it was finished. Owen's face was a bit flushed now, his skin beginning to turn its normal tan hue. He was still a bit pale, and the circles under his eyes were a testimony to his exhaustion, but he no longer looked sickly. Claire would've cried with relief, but the tears wouldn't come. She suspected that she was dehydrated; drinking water just hadn't been her prime concern the past few days.

She had hung up with her father once she was sure Owen was going to be okay. He hadn't asked her why she needed his help, or even if she was okay, and no mention of the recent events at Jurassic World came up in their conversation. He simply asked her to call him when she was out of the park, so he would know she was okay.

"You're still my little girl, Claire," he had said.

"Can I tell you what I've found now, or do you need to perform any more medical procedures?" burst out Lowery. "I could've gotten _killed_ getting this stuff for you guys. You know that, right?"

Claire looked at Lowery wearily. "Go for it."

"Sh!" Owen said, looking out the window in front of him. He reached out a hand to Claire, who helped him up, thankful that his strength was returning enough for him to stand without support. He tilted his head, going as close to the window as he dared. Their view was a picturesque one; the T-Rex paddock was filled with tall trees and a small creek ran right through the center. But Owen wasn't admiring the plant life. He was staring at the small dinosaur standing right in the middle of the paddock.

It was a velociraptor, with blue streaks running down each side of its body, staring intently at Owen.

 _AN: Bluuuuuuue! Or is it?_


	8. Blue

_AN: Did anyone order some PTSD? And also, I totally wrote this chapter whilst watching Guardians of the Galaxy. Definitely one of the best (and funniest) movies ever. Just search "I'm distracting you, you turd blossom" on YouTube for a clip of Chris Pratt dancing around and singing. It's wonderful._

Owen ran for the door so fast that Claire momentarily forgot he was recovering from a serious injury. She hurried after him, taking the stairs two at a time to keep up.

Neither of them heard Lowery yelling at them from the control room. "Oh, sure. Run _after_ the man-eating predator. Good choice, guys!"

Owen stopped in the viewing gallery, where normally, guests would observe a T-Rex being fed. This time, the viewing gallery showed Blue, who was staring unblinkingly through the window at Owen, her tail sticking straight up in the air and twitching every few seconds.

"Stay here. I don't want you to get hurt," Owen said softly, his lips barely moving. He was making eye contact with Blue, but his quietly spoken words were meant for Claire. She nodded to show she understood. He reached out and squeezed her hand lightly and pressed the five-digit code to open the emergency door that lead into the paddock. Owen slipped through and the door shut automatically behind him. Claire turned on the intercom that connected the control room, viewing gallery, and the main enclosure so she and Lowery could hear what was happening.

Owen was speaking to Blue in a tone she'd never heard him use before: commanding, dominant, but somehow still gentle. "Blue," he was saying, "where've you been?"

Blue quirked her head and blinked slowly. She was wounded; Claire could see fresh cuts just under the blue streaks on her sides, oozing droplets of blood.

Owen reached into his back pocket and grabbed a small bag of beef jerky that Claire remembered seeing on one of the shelves in the pit. Owen grabbed a piece and held it over his head, Blue's eyes following his arm.

"Yeah," he said. "I thought you'd be hungry." He walked towards her, holding the meat in front of him. Blue stretched her neck towards him and took a tentative step forward. "

"No!" Owen commanded, and Blue froze, her eyes narrowing at Owen. Claire could feel her heart beating out of her chest at the suspense. "You stay there."

Blue gnashed her teeth but stood her ground. Owen tossed the beef jerky in her direction and the snapped it up in midair, quicker than Claire's eyes could see.

"Good girl," said Owen. Blue turned around in a circle, keeping her eyes on Owen as long as she could. "You want some more?" She turned another circle and extended her neck, almost like she was nodding.

 _This is amazing_ , thought Claire as Owen threw another piece of beef jerky to Blue. She'd never seen anything like this before. Owen's words from earlier, when she needed him to take a look at the Indominus Rex containment unit, came to her mind. _I don't control the raptors; it's a relationship. It's based on mutual respect._

And he was right. Owen's relationship was Blue was very obviously based on mutual respect. Owen was very aware of Blue's fierceness. He knew that she could kill him, and no matter how much he loved her, she would always be dangerous. Blue deferred to Owen, knowing he was dominant over her. She submitted to him and allowed him to make the decisions. She may not always want to obey them, but she did because he was the alpha.

"I'm going to look at these," said Owen, eyeing the gashes on Blue's flanks. He whistled sharply to get her attention, and walked slowly around her. She tried to watch him the whole time, growing skittish when he was out of her eyesight. Owen didn't try to touch her where she was hurt, knowing that her reaction would be unpredictable, but Claire could tell he was concerned.

"Another piece?" he questioned when he was in front of her again, holding up the last piece of beef jerky. Blue went completely still and stared at it, her eyes flashing between Owen and the dried beef. "Go on, then." He threw it into the woods and she chased after it, flinging mud behind her with every step of her clawed feet.

Owen turned and walked quickly to the main gate, tapping the code on the keypad to shut it. He checked to make sure Blue was still in the woods before walking back towards the emergency door. Claire typed the code to open the door and he slid inside, wiping drops of sweat off his forehead.

He looked at Claire, his eyes resembling fractured glass. He trapped Claire in a hug, squeezing her so tightly that she feared he'd pop out his stitches. His whole body was trembling and suddenly Claire's was too; it was like they were feeling the mental and physical pain of the past week all at once, pouring down on them like a waterfall. Claire found she couldn't stand anymore, sinking to the floor and taking Owen with her.

She started trying and maybe Owen was too, because he pulled her close, wrapping his arms around her, hiding his face in her hair, his nose pressed against her collarbone. Claire felt like a small, terrified child in the arms of someone she cared about, maybe even loved. She closed her eyes and images flashed through her mind: the moment when they thought the Indominus escaped, when Zach and Gray had been in the valley alone, seeing Mr. Masrani crash into the aviary with his helicopter, running in front of the T-Rex with that red flare, and, most hauntingly of all, Owen slumping unconscious beside her, bleeding all over the place.

What if she hadn't been able to do the stitches? What if he had bled out, and she had been powerless to stop it? What if the Indominus had just eaten him, and he'd been taken from her suddenly, with no warning? How could she have lived? Who would be holding her now, keeping some part of her tied to reality?

Because that's what Owen was doing, even if he didn't know it. She could feel his warmth, touch his skin, hear his voice. He was keeping her in the world, bringing her out of her memories simply by holding her, by whispering soothing things into her ear even though he was suffering just like she was.

Claire wrapped her hands around his neck and buried her face in his shoulder, the skin-to-skin contact comforting her. "We're falling apart, Owen," she said, her voice muffled.

He rested his head on top of hers. "We can make it through this, Claire. We have to lean on each other." His voice was quiet but strong, and Claire allowed herself to be reassured by its strength.

"But what even is _this_?" asked Claire. "What are we doing?"

Owen didn't answer, but Lowery's voice sounded out from the stairwell.

"You're saving every dinosaur in Jurassic World. Now can you guys _please_ get in here and look at this?"

…

"So," said Claire in a horrified voice, "they're _robots_?"

"Not exactly," said Lowery. "More like animals infested with brain parasites that control their every move."

"InGen can't have total control, can they? I mean, no microchip can smother sixty-five million years of instinct. There has to be a kink in the system somewhere," said Owen, his arm tightening protectively around Claire.

They were sitting in a circle with notebooks and stray papers in the center; Lowery was examining one journal in particular: a purple one filled with pages upon pages of cramped handwriting.

"This thing explains everything," Lowery said, gesturing to the notebook in his hand. That first file we found must've just been speculation, the beginning of a theory. This notebook is the actual project: the experimentation, actual notes, the explicit details, all of it."

"So InGen," began Claire, repeating everything that Lowery had told her and Owen a few minutes ago, "has clones of all Jurassic World's dinosaurs?"

"Not clones, per say," said Lowery. "That creepy Wu guy has logged everything he did in these notebooks, and he's basically been sending them some eggs of every dino ever created at Jurassic World for years. Nobody noticed any eggs were missing because he only logged the ones that stayed in Jurassic World; it was like they never existed in the first place. InGen has complete access to every scientific experiment ever done at Jurassic World, and our dinosaurs aren't just _ours_ anymore. Any species we have, they have."

"But where have they been keeping them?" asked Claire.

"There are countless islands out here," said Owen. "They could be anywhere."

"Oh, that's optimistic," said Lowery.

"And their dinosaurs have…microchips inside them? In their brains?" asked Claire, trying to wrap her mind around everything.

"That's where the science starts to go over my head," said Lowery, flipping through a few pages of the notebook. "My best guess is what I said earlier: animals with brain parasites that control their every move. And by brain parasites, I mean the microchips, and by control, I mean InGen."

"They're flesh-and-blood robots," said Owen, running a hand through his hair.

Claire shivered. For once, Lowery hadn't been kidding. InGen _was_ sick.

"Okay," said Claire. "Is that why the Indominus didn't kill Owen? It was being controlled by someone?"

"It's Hunt," said Owen, with an edge of anger in his voice. "He's behind this."

"And the ankylosaurus attacking the Indominus?" Claire asked. "It was being controlled too, wasn't it?"

"I think it's safe to assume that any animal with abnormal behavior has a microchip in it," said Owen. "But, like I said before, you can't just suppress these animals' natural instincts by forcing them to do something. There _has_ to be a back up plan somewhere, some way for InGen to be sure that they have complete control over them. We're missing something."

"And it probably has something to do with those stupid equations," said Lowery, pointing to the original Project K file. "What is so significant about the number 10? And what, in the name of my dead uncle Leslie, does the K stand for in Project K?"

Owen and Claire looked at each other. "I don't know," they said in unison.

Lowery looked at the two of them, and then at the papers strewn about the control room. "I've had enough of this," he said. "There's supposed to be a raptor after me, so as long as Rambo here is sure that thing out there is one of his, I'm going to sleep. If Rambo is _not_ sure, I'm going to sleep anyway."

"I'm sure," said Owen.

Lowery nodded and pulled out his little brachiosaur figurine from his messenger bag, setting it beside him. He rested his head on one of the thick notebooks, passing out in half a second.

Claire looked at Owen, who took her hand and pulled her down the stairwell, back to the viewing room. Blue was curled up asleep beside the little creek, her tail flicking back and forth unconsciously. Owen looked out at her, worry clouding his features.

"Something got her out there," he said. "Those are fresh wounds, too new to be from the Indominus fight last week."

"Do you think it could've been InGen's raptor?" Claire asked, brushing some dirt off of Owen's chest. Both of them were filthy; it had been days since either of them had showered. Claire was sure that her hair looked a mess, but she couldn't make herself care about it.

Owen sighed. "I hope not. Now come here." He opened his arms and Claire allowed herself to be enveloped in them, closing her eyes and feeling, for just a second, like she was safe.

 _AN: This story has over 11,000 hits! Eleven thousand! Thank you guys so much. It's totally amazing. Chapter nine will be up tomorrow! And don't forget to look up that scene from Guardians of the Galaxy. It'll change your life. Seriously._


	9. Love

_AN: More PTSD heading your way. And some serious plot development. Also, you guys now know part of what Project K is, which is super awesome. But you don't know all of it. Those pesky equations, confusing everyone._

"That stupid raptor found them," said Patrick, punching one of the computers off its desk. Bridgette looked at him, eagerly awaiting his instruction. Let her break out their raptor. It would be so _fun_. Controlling the Indominus was entertaining, sure, but it was so big that all she could get it to do was stomp around and scare everybody. Their raptor was smaller, easier to manipulate. And Patrick liked being in charge of the Indominus, anyways. The raptor was Bridgette's.

"Let's send in Alice," Bridgette begged. "You said we could use her to hunt that computer guy, but I never got to!"

Patrick glared at her. "That's because _you_ got distracted, making Alice attack that one they call Blue. And then you let Blue get away, and now they could use her as a weapon against us."

Bridgette rolled her eyes. Patrick took things too seriously. She'd only been having fun, scratching up that other velociraptor.

"Come on," said Patrick. "Lets go do what we were sent here to do. Do you have the list?"

Bridgette had, in fact, _lost_ the list, but she remembered everything on it. "Yep," she lied. "Let's go."

…

Claire was running so fast she thought her heels would break. The T-Rex was behind her; she could hear its massive feet hitting the ground. _We need more teeth_ , Gray had said. So Claire had gotten more teeth. More teeth that were currently following the flare in her hand; it associated that color with food. Claire just hoped that, in the end, it saw the Indominus as a bigger threat than herself.

She threw the flare at the Indominus Rex, and the T-Rex roared at it, heading straight for it with its mouth wide open. Claire was relieved for a fraction of a second, before she saw the blood pooling on the ground. Zach and Gray, dead, their bodies mangled so badly that they were barely recognizable.

Claire screamed, taking a step backwards and tripping over something. Her heels finally snapped and she fell to the ground, landing in something warm and wet.

Owen's blood, leaking from his body. He was dead too, with a massive slash across his chest.

Claire screamed again, feeling pain she didn't know she could feel. They were all gone. All dead. Her plan with the T-Rex was failing; the Indominus was stronger, its genes making it the more powerful predator. The T-Rex fell with a massive crash, shaking the ground like a small earthquake. Claire felt very small and powerless, staring up at the Indominus Rex. It turned to face her, its mouth open, its teeth bloody and sharp.

"Claire," came a voice. The dream stopped abruptly, but Claire was trapped in a state of terror. All of them were dead.

"Claire," said the voice again. "It's okay. Everyone made it out." Claire felt hands rubbing out the tension in her back gently, and it slowly dawned on her that she had been having a nightmare.

"Everyone died," she whispered, opening her eyes to see starlight shining in through the windows of the viewing room, where she and Owen had fallen asleep so Owen could be within eyesight of Blue.

"I know," Owen said. "You talk in your sleep." He sat up and pulled her into his lap, ignoring her apologies for waking him up with her yells.

"Zach and Gray…" Claire said, the image of their bodies flashing through her mind. She rubbed her temples, trying to clear her head.

"They're fine," Owen said. "You got them out of here."

" _We_ got them out of here," Claire corrected. "And then you were dead and I didn't know what to do, I couldn't…and it –the Indominus- turned on me and you weren't there to help me. I was all alone and you were dead and-" Claire broke off, breathing heavily. The true terror of her dream was Owen dying, leaving her alone, without him.

"I'm right here," said Owen, tightening his arms around her. "I need you, you need me. We're sticking together, remember?"

The edges of Claire's lips twitched up in a smile, despite her bad dream. "For survival." Her eyes closed on their own, and she curled into Owen, nestling her head against his chest. She worried briefly about pressing on his stitches, but he only pulled her closer.

"That's right," he said. He took a deep breath, like he was calming himself down, and only then did Claire wonder if he'd been having a nightmare as well.

…

Lowery woke them up a few hours, and if he found odd the fact that Claire and Owen had fallen asleep all tangled together, he didn't say anything about it.

"I hope you guys have some food," he said. "I get grumpy if I don't have breakfast."

So they had a meager breakfast of granola bars and water, but it was better than nothing. Claire wasn't in the mood to eat anyways; she was the type of person that didn't eat when she was stressed, but Owen made her. He kept his eyes on her most of the morning, making sure she was okay, telling her she looked beautiful. Claire couldn't help but smile at him; it had been so long since she'd let someone be concerned about her. She had pushed everyone, especially her family, away the past few years. Not intentionally, of course, but it had happened nonetheless.

Owen let one of the goats typically used as food for the T-Rex into the paddock about midday to do a hunting exercise with Blue. Claire watched, fascinated by how they interacted. She'd never seen trust like that between an animal and a human, particularly an animal so deadly and a person who, despite being tough as nails, had a soft side too.

"Hey, Claire," Lowery called, his voice echoing through the intercom. "Get up here for a second."

Claire did, and was surprised to see Lowery typing on the keyboard of the old computer in the control room. The computer looked like it belonged back in the nineties, with a tiny frame and lines upon lines of code flashing on the screen.

"How do you understand this?" Claire asked.

Lowery shrugged. "Some people train velociraptors, other people learn computer code. Anyway, this computer is on the old system."

"What?" said Claire. "We updated everything a year ago! Marketing was so mad that we spent so much money on all new tech equipment."

"Well, apparently you forgot to update this old thing."

Claire frowned. "Can we use it?"

"I think so," said Lowery. "InGen's tech girl hasn't bothered to mess with this system since the main computers don't use it anymore. I think I _might_ be able to hack into their security feed."

"We might be able to get eyes on them?" Claire asked.

Lowery nodded.

"Good," said Owen, startling Claire. He had walked up behind her so quietly that she didn't know he was there. He slid his arms around her waist and kissed the back of her neck, making chill bumps pop up all over her body. "I want to find out what attacked my raptor."

"Get a room," Lowery muttered, wrinkling his nose at their display of affection.

"Happily," replied Owen, pulling Claire's lips up to his. Claire kissed him back because she couldn't help it; he was irresistible.

Lowery cleared his throat in annoyance and they broke apart, Claire blushing and Owen grinning slyly. He winked at Claire, who bit her lip to stop herself from laughing.

"As I was _saying_ ," said Lowery, turning back to the computer. "I can get us access to all the cameras in Jurassic World. We might be able to figure out what the ultimate goal with Project K is if we can watch what that Hunt guy and his creepy friend are doing. InGen has to have a plan for the parasitosaurs. They're here for a reason."

Owen raised an eyebrow. "Parasitosaurs?"

"Yeah, like parasite-dinosaurs, 'cause those microchips are like parasites…and they're dinosaurs. It makes sense," said Lowery.

Claire sighed. "Just see if you can get the security feed up."

"On it," said Lowery.

…

Hours later, Lowery called Owen and Claire back to the control room. He was clearly growing restless, tapping his fingers on the desk and rubbing his forehead, but there was a static-filled video feed up on the small computer screen.

"Got it," he said. Claire leaned in closer so she could see more clearly. The feed was switching from camera to camera every thirty seconds, giving them different views of the destruction across the park. There were dinosaurs roaming all over the place, and definite evidence of predation in the West Plains: blood and bones spread all across the uncut grass.

"T-Rex, or Indominus?" Claire muttered, pointing to the image of the bones.

Owen squinted at the screen. "No clue. Maybe both."

The feed switched to a different camera and Claire gasped. "There they are! Why are they out of the lab?"

A tall, intimidating looking guy –who Claire assumed was Patrick Hunt- was standing beside a mysteriously still archaeornithomimus, which was strange because they typically got very jumpy when humans got too close to them. Claire looked closer at the video and saw a blonde girl sitting beside the guy, holding a small remote control. A joystick sat in the grass beside her, and she touched it periodically. Every time she placed her fingers on the joystick, the archaeornithomimus twitched, and Claire assumed it was, as Lowery had said, one of InGen's parasitosaurs.

Owen clenched his jaw when he saw Hunt put a harness on the archaeornithomimus, like the ones Hoskins had made them put on the velociraptors before they went hunting for the Indominus.

"They want to be able to see what their dinosaurs are seeing," said Owen. "That's what those harnesses are for."

Claire looked at him, the beginnings of an idea forming in her head. "What if we went behind them and stole the harnesses off their dinosaurs? It would slow them down, wouldn't it? And give us more time to figure out why they feel the need to have microchips inside of dinosaurs, and why they're invading my park."

Owen's lips curved up in a smile. "I'm game. Lets stick with the herbivores, though. I'm not in the mood to run for my life."

Lowery swiveled his chair around to look at them. "You guys have a death wish, don't you?"

"Nope," said Claire. "But I'm not going to let InGen take over this park. _I_ own it. Not them." She looked at Owen, who was staring right back at her like all his dreams were coming true at once.

"I'm in love with her," he whispered to himself, his eyes roaming all over Claire.

 _AN: Guys. Chapter 12 (I know we're only on chapter 9, but I AM SO EXCITED FOR CHAPTER TWELVE) is coming up! It's going to be a break from all the seriousness, and there will be water fights. I cannot wait to write it!_

 _Review!_


	10. Realization

_AN: Have you guys seen Chris Pratt's Jurassic World journals? They're so funny! And they're on YouTube, so definitely look them up. Also, thank you so much for your favorites, follows, reviews, and for reading this! Few things are better than having people like something you've written._

Owen briefly poked his head up above the grass before laying down flat again, putting a finger to his lips, silently telling Claire that they were close to Hunt and his tech sidekick.

Claire could hear them arguing abut the best route to take to the Cretaceous Cruise; the girl wanted to cut across the park, while Hunt wanted to follow the monorail line. Gradually, their voices sounded farther away, and Owen stuck his head over the grass again to see if the coast was clear. Claire was reminded of a prairie dog, rising up out of its hole to see if the threat had disappeared. She snickered. Owen the prairie dog.

They had been following Hunt all day, removing every collar from every animal they saw. Claire found it very satisfying to be silently resisting them, slowing them down in any way possible.

"We're good," Owen said, standing up and holding out his hand to Claire. She took it and he lead her towards the two pachycephalosaurs grazing a little ways ahead of them. Both had harnesses strapped tightly to their heads; too tight to be comfortable. Claire frowned at them, tentatively running her fingers across the rough material of the harness.

Claire was still hesitant when touching dinosaurs. She didn't know what they were going to do; she couldn't read their eyes like Owen could. He was so natural with them, speaking to them like he would Zach or Gray, unhooking the harness with ease and smashing the cameras on it with his foot. The first pachycephalosaur was free, looking at Owen gratefully with its glassy eyes. It shook its head, reveling in freedom, and went back to its grassy meal.

"You've got it," said Owen, putting the destroyed harness in the bag Claire had strapped to her shoulders. "It won't hurt you."

She reached slowly towards the latch of the harness –which was right beside the pachy's mouth-, knowing it probably wouldn't snap its teeth at her. They were really quite tame until a relative got rough with them. Then they'd battle it out by head-butting each other, sometimes for hours at a time. It blinked at her, its eyelids shutting sideways, silently asking for help. Claire unsnapped the harness and pulled it off, the pachy stretching its neck in relief. She handed the harness to Owen, who once again stomped on the cameras sewn into the material.

"That's two more down," she said, and they traipsed on, fighting their way through the tall grass. "We can get them all."

…

It happened when were on their way to the Cretaceous Cruise. Claire was radioing in to Lowery, who was keeping them updating on dinosaur movement throughout the park.

"I just saw good old T-Rexy kill a stegosaurus in the main pavilion," he said. "It was so gross, yet awesome.

Claire rolled her eyes. "Just keep an eye on everything."

"I _know_ ," said Lowery.

She clicked off the walkie-talkie and Owen pulled her close, kissing the top of her head. He'd been acting different, quieter, since they left Paddock Nine. Claire assumed he was wondering about Blue and what had attacked her when she'd been roaming about the park.

Claire guessed Owen's thoughts correctly, but there was one more thing on Owen's mind, and it happened to be the girl walking right beside him.

It was eerily quiet in the fields; a breeze swept through, rustling the grass and making Claire realize exactly how humid it was outside. Her hair was sticking to her skin, and sweat was rolling down her back. It had been much too long since her last shower.

"Too empty," Owen mused, breaking the silence. "Where are the animals?"

Claire looked around. Owen was right; the fields were too empty. Usually they were swarmed with various herbivores, all trying to find the best patch of grass to eat.

"They're hiding," Owen said, realization dawning on him.

That was when they heard the first hair-raising screech. It was a sound Claire recognized, and she associated it with three things: one, Mr. Masrani's helicopter crashing through the aviary, two: pandemonium across the park, and three: Owen kissing her.

Owen cocked his gun, recognizing the screech as well. He scanned the field, looking for cover. There were trees ringing the very edge of the grassy flatlands, but they were too far away. Claire was also looking for any type of shelter, and she saw none.

"What do we do?" she said, her voice coming out as a strangled whisper.

Owen bit his lip. "Get down," he said. Claire obeyed, laying flat on her back in the grass so she could see the pterodactyls and pteranodons fly over them. She pulled at the grass around her, shielding herself as much as possible.

Owen dropped to his knees and set down his gun, arranging the grass to cover it so the sun wouldn't glint off of it. Claire's heart raced whenever he lowered himself on top of her, face-to-face, holding himself inches above her body.

"What are you doing?" she whispered, suppressing the urge to pull him closer to her and kiss him.

He leaned in beside her ear, and Claire could almost feel his heart beating against her. "If they see us, they'll get me first." He looked at her, his green eyes meeting hers, and Claire saw something in them that both terrified and invigorated her.

Love. Owen loved her.

Claire's breath hitched and Owen blinked at her, nodding his head slowly to confirm her theory. "I love you too," she breathed, and this time she really _did_ pull him closer, smashing her lips to his.

He held back at first, remembering the threats flying the air, but he couldn't resist for long, slipping his hand under Claire's head and deepening the kiss. He made a sound in the back of his throat, a cross between a growl and a groan, and Claire reacted instinctively, wrapping her arms around his back and pulling him flush against her. Claire was suddenly very glad they hadn't yet found a shirt to replace the one the Indominus had destroyed; she could touch so much more of him, his bare skin warm against her hands.

"When did you know?" Claire asked between kisses.

"That I loved you?" Owen asked, his face flushed. He sucked gently on the shell of her ear and Claire moaned quietly, ignoring the screeches of the pterosaur flock above them.

"Yeah," she gasped, trying to form coherent thoughts as Owen began nipping down her collarbone, his facial hair scraping against her skin. He drove her _wild_ , made her whole body shake simply by touching her.

"Last night, when you suggested going after Hunt. It just hit me and I couldn't deny it. I've been thinking about it, about _you_ , all day." He glanced up at her, wetting his lips with his tongue. Claire's collarbone was tingling where he had nibbled at it.

A pterodactyl gave a particularly loud screech and both of them froze, looking up at the sky. The dinosaurs were flying in perfect formation, soaring through the sky with no intention of dive-bombing the two humans hiding in the field. Owen and Claire laughed quietly at themselves for being so paranoid; their last encounter with pterosaurs had left them hyper-aware of their predation habits.

"What do we do now?" Claire asked quietly, tracing Owen's cheekbone with her fingertips.

Owen lowered himself back down to her in answer, tracing the outline of her lips with his tongue. She murmured something incoherent, allowed his tongue access to her mouth, and they explored each other, amazed that this felt so _natural_ , like they'd been together for years.

They stayed in the field for quite a while, not even noticing the last of the flock disappear from view.

…

Claire and Owen showed up at the Cretaceous Cruise sometime later, glancing at each other every few seconds and grinning. Claire felt almost giddy, which was such a strange feeling in the midst of her PTSD that she almost didn't know how to act. The only thing she knew was that Owen loved her, she loved him, and he looked extremely attractive when his lips were swollen from kissing her.

Claire was sure Lowery would notice the new bruises she had on her neck, but she didn't care in the slightest.

 _He loved her_.

 _She loved him_.

 _Together, they could stop these guys._

Owen bent low, running quietly behind the kayaks that allowed park guests to cruise down the river and look at dinosaurs from the Cretaceous period. It was one of Claire's favorite attractions at the park: no-nonsense and always filled to the brim with people. She followed him and they took shelter behind a large bush and a sleeping triceratops, checking to see if Hunt was around.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN, YOU LEFT THE FILES HERE?" came a very loud, very mad voice from behind a tree fifty feet away from where Owen and Claire sat.

"I didn't have time to get them, Hunt. Hoskins was finishing the lab evacuation. He was taking care of the paper files and hiding the shock-switches that _you_ need." Claire's eyes widened. She recognized that voice, but what was Dr. Wu doing back on Isla Nublar?

Claire peered around the triceratops, anger bubbling up inside her. If Wu was out there…she'd introduce him to Blue, let him see the fierceness of the creatures he engineered.

To Claire's slight disappointment, Wu was not in the woods talking to Hunt, but rather Hunt was in the woods talking to Wu via Skype. She stuck her head out a little farther, narrowing her eyes at Hunt, before Owen pulled her back behind the triceratops, shaking his head at her. He pointed to a spot somewhere just behind the bush that surrounded them, and Claire assumed that was where the tech girl was on lookout.

Claire frowned and scooted as close to the triceratops as she dared, determined to overhear the conversation between Hunt and Wu.

"I saved the most important notebook, anyway. Without this, they won't be able do anything but stall our plan. They don't know about the shock-switches," Wu was saying.

Claire looked at Owen, mouthing ' _shock-switches?'_ He shrugged his shoulders and edged closer to the triceratops, trying to hear more clearly.

"And that's another thing! Do you have any idea how hard it is to get those stupid switches inside of these animals?" Hunt said, running a hand through his hair angrily. "They have thick skulls."

Wu laughed. "I developed them. I know exactly how hard it is."

"Why can't we just microchip all these old dinos? Then we could at least make them stand still while we inject the shock-switches. It'd be so much easier that way. We're already having to go through and harness all the new dinos, and that's hard enough."

"I don't want to hear your complaints," said Wu. "You know the microchips only work if they are injected right after the dinosaurs hatch because they have to develop with the dinosaur's brain. The shock-switches can be injected at any time throughout a dinosaur's life because they only have one purpose."

"I know," Hunt grumbled. "Project K. In with the new, out with the old. Whatever."

"You can't say 'whatever' when you own this park," said Wu with just a hint of anger clouding his usually calm voice.

"If you say so,"said Hunt, ending the video call with a swipe of his finger across his phone screen. He shoved the phone roughly in his pocket and yanked the blond girl up by her arm, dragging her through the woods after him, ignoring her whimpering.

Claire and Owen looked at each other, trying to process what they had just heard. Shock-switches?

"I knew we were missing something," Owen said. "Those switches…we have to figure out what they are."

 _AN: So…sleepy…must…continue…writing._


	11. Clean

_We are really getting in the thick of things plot-wise. But next chapter will be a break from the seriousness, and I'm really super pumped about it._

Bridgette frowned at her laptop. Something was wrong. None of the cameras from the harnesses were uploading to her computer, and that put them behind tremendously. How were they supposed to control something they couldn't see? Even the security feed had been spotty lately, like it was projecting to too many computers at once, which made no sense because Bridgette had the only functioning computer on Isla Nublar.

Or so she thought.

To make matters worse, the microchips were starting to malfunction, and Bridgette didn't know why. Wu was no help; he was overly confident in his ability to innovate, convinced that his inventions could never fail. Well, they were failing, whether Wu wanted to admit it or not. She couldn't get some dinosaurs to do exactly what she wanted, like the other day when she tried to make one of their stegosaurs attack an old Jurassic World triceratops, and it had dug its heels into the ground, resisting the temptation coming from its own mind.

Worst of all, Hunt had made her abandon the control room, where most of her tech stuff was, because he didn't like to stay in one place for too long. They had relocated to the raptor paddock, staying in the same pit that the redhead and that hot guy had slept in for a few nights.

They had left the place a mess, too. Blood everywhere, first aid supplies strewn all over the place, and even a badly torn shirt. Bridgette supposed this was where Claire had nursed the guy, whom Bridgette had scratched up real nice with the claws of their Indominus. Bridgette smiled. That had been a fun day.

She sighed, looking out at the raptor paddock. Hunt was out there, experimenting with Alice. He wanted to see how far he could push her without killing her, and so far, Alice was growing fiercer, more dangerous. Maybe Hunt was being cruel to Alice, but that didn't particularly bother Bridgette. She wanted to see Alice kill that other raptor. In with the new, out with the old. That was the goal.

But if those stupid microchips kept acting up, there might not _be_ a new to replace the old. In which case, it would finally be time to test the 'K' in Project K.

And really, that was all Bridgette wanted.

…

"Why do you always come back with those… _bruises_ on your neck whenever you two are alone? I do not need to see that, Claire," Lowery said, cleaning his glasses on the old Jurassic Park t-shirt he'd purchased from eBay.

Owen hid his smile by pressing his face into Claire's hair.

Lowery was looking at them in disapproval. "You guys need a chaperone or something. Seriously."

" _Okay_ ," said Claire, attempting to change the subject. "We overheard a conversation between Hunt and Wu, and they mentioned something called a shock-switch. Have you heard of those?"

Lowery scratched his head. "Not that I can think of."

"I know it has something to do with these," said Owen, holding up the Project K files covered in math problems. Claire glared at the pages, mad at them for not stating their purpose clearly. She hated bad organization. "These numbers mean something, but I bet we won't know what until InGen wants us to."

Claire felt sick. Why had anyone allowed InGen to sign on with Jurassic World in the first place? They had always been a shady company with too much power for their own good.

She sat down, no longer having the strength to stand. Owen followed suit, laying his hand on top of hers to remind her that she wasn't alone.

"How far up does this go?" Claire wondered aloud, looking from Owen to Lowery. Her head was spinning; she felt as if she was falling apart. "Is the Board corrupt too? How many employees were secretly working for them?"

"And why?" asked Owen. "Why are they here? Why does Project K exist? What purpose does it have?"

"Not a good one," said Lowery, stating the obvious.

Claire looked at Owen. "You said you knew Hunt from the military?"

Owen nodded, running his fingers across the small, circular scar on his chest that Claire figured came from a bullet. "He was a jerk. Always pounding on the new recruits, telling them they were worthless. He hated the fact that I had been promoted above him. He didn't like listening to people; he's one of those guys who shouldn't be in charge, but thinks he _should_ be."

Claire frowned. "What about the girl that's with him? Who is she?"

Lowery rolled his chair back with a squeak. "I think I might know." He gestured to his computer screen, which was showing a list of InGen employees. Owen was on there, to Claire's mild surprise. She had forgotten that he technically worked for InGen.

Lowery scrolled down to the very bottom, past the pictures of Hoskins and Barry, the other guy hired to work with the velociraptors, until reaching a photo of a skinny blond girl with weirdly pinched features.

"Bridgette Trakowski," read Owen. "I've never heard of her."

"Me neither," said Claire. "I never really paid much attention to InGen; they didn't draw attention to themselves."

"Now we know why," said Lowery. "They were too busy being devious." He clicked off of the InGen website, going back to the security feed. Claire saw the ruins of what used to be Jurassic World flashing onscreen.

She sighed, wanting to go home, to have just one day where she didn't have the weight of the world on her shoulders.

"I need a break," Claire said. "I can't go on like this anymore." She gestured to herself and the dirt that covered her body. "I feel disgusting, I'm hungry, I…I need a _shower_."

"Well," said Owen slowly. "We could go to my place. There's food there, and water."

"Don't Hunt and that Bridgette girl know where you live, though?" asked Lowery.

Claire frowned. The Indominus _had_ found them at his bungalow first, but they hadn't seen it since the raptor paddock, and the idea of actually being _clean_ was so tempting that Claire couldn't resist.

"I'm going to try for it," said Claire. "Owen? You coming?"

"Of course," he said, standing up and strapping his gun onto his shoulders. "Lowery?"

Lowery glanced up at them, and then back at his computer. "No thanks. I value my life."

Claire shrugged. "We'll bring you back some food."

"Keep an eye on my raptor," said Owen. "I don't want anything entering that paddock without my knowing. Something wounded her out there, and I have a feeling it isn't finished yet."

…

"I have a bad feeling about this," said Owen as they walked across the park towards his little house. They were going around the raptor paddock, steering clear of the woods where the Indominus had slashed Owen.

As much as she hated to admit it, Claire did too. "I know. I don't like not knowing where Hunt is."

Lowery had been keeping Claire updated on the security feed, telling her that Bridgette and Hunt were not in the control room, and he hadn't found them on any other cameras yet. It made Claire nervous; they could be anywhere right now, laying in wait with an army of flesh-robot dinosaurs. It was a terrifying notion, but one that was entirely possible.

"When we get this place up and running again, I am shutting down InGen. Or at least disconnecting them from Jurassic World and taking down all of their little 'side projects'," Claire said, putting her hands on her hips, her eyes flashing in anger.

Owen laughed. "Just look at them like that and they'll run away with their tails between their legs."

The corners of Claire's mouth turned up in a small smile. "I could fire _you_ , you know. I'm your boss."

Owen looked down at her, his eyebrows raised. "You wouldn't fire me."

"And why not?"

"You _love_ me," he teased, sliding his arm around her waist.

Claire smacked his shoulder, enjoying their lighthearted banter. It kept her mind off of Project K and those mysterious switches.

That was when they heard the gunshot echo across the small clearing they were crossing. Claire would've screamed, but Owen clamped his hand gently over her mouth to keep her silent. She looked around wildly, her heart beating out of her chest, but there was no visible threat anywhere.

"What-?" Claire whispered, not knowing what to ask.

Owen was standing straight up, listening intently to something. Claire figured her ears were still in shock from the gunshot; all she heard was a weird ringing noise. It took her a moment to figure out that what she was hearing was actually a very high-pitched hiss, almost like a teapot whistling.

"It's a raptor," Owen whispered, looking back towards the paddock curiously. It was a ways behind them now, but Claire could see the outline of a man standing on the observation bridge. He was holding something that Claire supposed was the gun. "Come on."

He pulled her into the shadow of the trees surrounding the clearing, taking advantage of the setting sun. They sneaked over to the very edge of the cage, getting as close to it as they dared. Claire saw Hunt, who was definitely holding a rifle in his left hand, and a small remote control in his right.

He was laughing, a deep, unnatural sound that made the hairs on Claire's arms stand up. She gasped quietly when she saw what Hunt was laughing at; a velociraptor, smaller than Blue but much more colorful; its scales ranging in color from vivid green to a rusty red color. It was lying in the grass, blood seeping out of a small hole in its forearm, looking evilly up at Hunt.

"Get up, Alice," Hunt said, pressing a button on the remote. The raptor, which Claire guessed was Alice, slowly stood, glaring up at Hunt like moving was the last thing she wanted to do, but she had no choice. Claire saw small scars all over its body, particularly its back and forearms, most likely from one of the electronic prods ACU used for emergencies.

Abuse. Hunt was taming his raptor by abusing it, forcing it to acknowledge that he was boss. It was the exact opposite of how Owen treated Blue; there was no trust, no respect. This was fear and control.

"He's already got a microchip in it," said Claire, gripping Owen's arm. "Why is he hurting it?"

Owen was staring at Hunt in silent fury. "He wants to make it completely submissive. He wants it to obey him without the microchip."

"Why?" Claire asked, staring at the poor raptor that was now limping through the grass to retrieve a rat Hunt had thrown at it.

"So he can fight with it without having to bother with a remote. That raptor is what hurt Blue."

"He's training it," said Claire, her eyes widening in shock. "Why?"

"I don't know," said Owen. "They won't be able to do anything for a while. He's got to let her heal, recover from her injuries, once he's sure she's completely submissive."

"But they're going to attack us with it?" Claire asked.

"We're the only people standing between them and all of Jurassic World," said Owen, confirming her fears. "Question is, why are they using a raptor when they could use the Indominus?"

Claire looked back at the injured raptor and then at Hunt, who was pulling a shock-prod out of a small bin at his feet. "Come on," she said. "I can't watch any more of this."

Owen gave Hunt one last dark look and followed Claire back to the clearing, shaking with anger.

 _AN: Slow chapter, I know. Sorry! I had trouble with this one. But be prepared for fluff, laughter, and joy in the next chapter. Yay!_


	12. Idea

_AN: So sorry last chapter was a little slow. I had the worst time writing that one! I don't know why! But here we are with chapter 12, which I am affectionately naming "Break", because that's what it is. A break from the harsh reality that these poor characters are living in. Also, I'm not entirely sure whose POV this chapter is in. I think a little of both._

Few things were better for Claire than a hot shower, particularly when it had been a full week since she'd last cleaned herself off in that river outside the pit. She had made Owen wash off before her, knowing she would spend several minutes mulling things over in the warm water. She washed her hair with his shampoo, her body with his soap, smiling at how very Owen-like she now smelled.

Claire could hear him shaving; he was just outside the curtain, not five feet away from her. It made her stomach flip for him to be that close when she was wearing no clothes, but she wasn't uncomfortable in the least. Just…nervous.

"I won't sneak any peeks at you," said Owen as if he'd read Claire's mind.

Claire felt her face go as red as her hair. After she'd stitched him up and she was sure he was going to be okay, she'd definitely snuck a look _there_. He had been only in his boxers, after all. How was she supposed to _not_ look?

"Claire?" Owen asked, startling her so much that she let the bar of soap slip right out of her hand. Claire laughed at herself, trying to pick up the soap. It slid out of her hands and across the shower floor every time she tried to touch it, and eventually she gave up and rinsed herself off, explaining the soapy situation to Owen.

She heard him chuckle and exit the bathroom, giving her some privacy to dry off and clothe herself. He had set out an old _Blue Swede_ t-shirt and a pair of his boxers for her to wear, as her clothes were in the wash. The shirt came down almost to her knees, making her realize exactly how much bigger Owen was than her.

"How do you feel?" he questioned when Claire walked out of the bathroom, trying to get her bangs to lay straight on her forehead.

" _Clean_ ," Claire said. She felt like herself again, like she could tackle any obstacle. And best of all, she wasn't alone. Owen was here, and, despite his grumbling, Lowery wasn't going anywhere either. "Oh, and these fell off when I tried to put them on." Claire held up the boxers and saw Owen's eyes darken when he realized she wasn't wearing anything under the t-shirt.

"Just throw them on my bed," he said roughly, running a hand through his still-damp hair so it stuck up at odd angles.

Claire flipped her hair behind her ears, giving him a clear view of the bite mark he'd left on her collarbone when they'd been hiding from the pterosaurs in the field.

"She's going to kill me," Owen muttered, staring after Claire's retreating figure. He walked over to the old tape player in the corner of his kitchen and clicked play. He always listened to the same music: old songs from the sixties and seventies that his mom had listened to when she was growing up. She'd passed the tape on to Owen when she died, and he'd never grown tired of the songs. They always brought back memories of happiness.

Claire was almost shocked when she came back into the kitchen to find Owen cooking, stirring something in a pot while bobbing his head to some old music coming from a tape player in the corner of his small kitchen.

"You cook?" she asked, her surprise evident in her tone.

Owen flashed her a smile. "I live alone, Claire. Gotta eat somehow."

Claire laughed. "I guess so." She walked over to help, her stomach growling for food. It had been weeks since she'd eaten something other than prepackaged health snacks, and Claire was _starving_.

They were soon slurping up spaghetti noodles on the picnic table outside, enjoying the night air. Owen had brought the tape player outside, so music was playing softly around them.

"Why do you think Hunt was training his raptor like that?" Claire asked, wiping her mouth clean of spaghetti sauce.

Owen chewed his noodles thoughtfully. "She was what attacked Blue, no question about it. I think, eventually, he'll use her against us."

"But why? And how?"

Owen shrugged. "I don't know."

Claire took a deep breath. "I hate not knowing."

An upbeat song started playing on the tape player, and Owen pushed his now-empty plate to the side, offering Claire his arm.

She raised her eyebrows. "What are you doing?"

"Come on," he said, turning up the music. "Maybe our first date was a disaster, but this one isn't going to be." He twirled her around to the beat of the music, her still-damp hair flying about her face wildly.

Claire laughed. She had forgotten about that date with Owen. Oh gosh, it had been a fiasco: Claire with her printed list of activities and Owen with his tequila shots. They simply hadn't understood each other; hadn't learned each other yet. They didn't know how good they were for each other, how they could balance each other out.

"So this is a date, then?" Claire questioned, leaning against Owen's chest. He held her close to him, almost too tightly, but Claire understood. He needed to feel her realness, her blood pulsing against his.

Owen shuddered when she pressed her lips to his neck, reaching up to tug on the ends of her hair. "I don't know how to do this," he said, suddenly serious. He pressed his forehead against hers. "I don't know how to get us out of this, get _you_ out of this alive."

Claire rested her hand against his face, looking straight into his eyes. She saw fear there, overwhelming his every thought, every move. But Claire also saw strength, and love powerful enough to make her go weak in the knees.

"We aren't going to worry about this," Claire said, resting her head against his chest. "That's how we'll make it through. We're going to stick together."

"For survival," Owen finished, a shadow of a smile crossing his rugged features.

"For survival," Claire repeated, feeling that if they said it enough, it would actually happen.

…

This date was so much better than the last one. Owen dug out some ice cream from his freezer after a while, and one of those cans of whipped cream that Claire hadn't had since she was a teenager.

Claire smacked him with her spoon when he sprayed the whipped cream straight into his mouth, leaving none for his ice cream.

He just looked at her, feigning innocence, removing the last of the whipped cream from his lips with a napkin.

"You missed a spot," Claire said, even though really, Owen _hadn't_ missed a spot.

He at a spoonful of his ice cream, his eyes never leaving hers.

"I'll get it," said Claire, shoving her ice cream to the side and capturing Owen's lips with hers.

He grunted softly, caught by surprise, gripping her hips to hold himself steady. "Thanks," he murmured, pushing her against the counter, kissing her like she was the only thing in the world that made any sense.

And Claire supposed that, right now, that was true. Everything was falling apart around them, her whole career was slipping away, and InGen was winning. Owen was one of the only things in her life at the moment that was steady. He wouldn't betray her, wouldn't try to use an animal as a weapon against her.

 _He wouldn't try to use an animal as a weapon against me_. Claire tugged on Owen's hair to pull him closer, repeating that thought to herself over and over again, until something clicked in her brain and she broke away from Owen, her heart beating so rapidly that she was sure he could hear it.

"What is it?" Owen asked, his voice filled with concern.

"Weapons," Claire muttered, pushing her bangs out of her eyes. "What if they want to use their dinosaurs as weapons?"

Owen's forehead creased as he processed what Claire was saying.

"Think about it," she said. "InGen has basically turned their dinosaurs into robots, but they're robots who can fight and kill and eat their enemies. Just look at what one wild animal did to Jurassic World last week. How much worse could it be it humans were controlling the dinosaurs?"

Owen gave a low whistle. "Hoskins kept going on about using my raptors in war, talking about how many lives they could save, but I kept telling him that they were too unpredictable; they were wild animals. But now…"

"Now InGen has these whatever-Lowery-called-them _parasitosaurs_ that are not unpredictable."

"Okay," said Owen, thinking fast. "What if my raptors were just a test run? What if InGen was seeing how they responded to commands in an emergency situation? And when that failed, they brought in the flesh-robots."

Claire gasped. "Owen! What if…what if InGen was using the Indominus escape for their benefit?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, what if InGen knew that thing would eventually escape? What if InGen wanted to see the destruction it would cause, how much people would panic if they knew a living, breathing predator was right next to them?"

"So," said Owen slowly. "InGen used the Indominus Rex's escape to see how much havoc could be wreaked?"

"It makes sense," said Claire. "Now that the world remembers dinosaurs can't really be tamed, think about how terrified they would be to see another Indominus. Think about how, if InGen could control the Indominus or another genetic hybrid, they could use it like Hoskins wanted to."

"In war," Owen said, cracking his knuckles. "Everything last week, the Indominus escape, the pandemonium, all of it was just a test run to see how people would respond to it in a real world situation."

"And now we're in the way of their experiment," Claire said, chills running down her spine. "I have to call Lowery."

…

The velociraptor was curled up behind a bush, holding itself so still that it resembled a statue. It watched the humans talk, heard them saying things to each other in excited voices, knowing only that it was supposed to kill them.

But not yet. She _couldn't_ kill them yet because Boss wouldn't give her permission. So Alice was watching them, waiting for Boss to let her have them, let her rip them like Boss ripped her.

 _AN: Writer's block is real. Pray for my poor, overworked brain._


	13. Call

_AN: Thank you for your reviews and favorites and follows! You guys are the best. And I sincerely hope you got my huge Guardians of the Galaxy shoutout in that last chapter. Read on!_

Lowery had been exasperated when he received Claire's call from the outdated cell phone Owen kept on his nightstand.

"Do you have any proof of this?" he asked, and Claire could hear him typing furiously on his computer, looking for anything to corroborate their theory.

Lowery had a point. Why would InGen need living dinosaur weapons? That wasn't in any of the Project K notebooks they had.

 _Although_ , Claire thought, _Wu did say that we were missing the most important notebook, the one with the most serious stuff in it._

"We haven't gotten that far yet," said Claire. "Just…research."

"You better give me a raise," Lowery muttered. "And tell your boyfriend that his raptor is fine. She won't stop running around, but fine."

Claire went into Owen's bedroom, intending on telling him that Blue was doing well, but he was sound asleep on his bed, clothes on and all. She smiled at him, loving how gentle he looked in sleep.

"I guess that's well-deserved," she said quietly, cupping his face in her hands. His eyes opened and he smiled sleepily at her, tugging off his shirt and pants.

"Hate sleeping in clothes," he said, his voice deeper than usual, more tired. "Come here." He slid under the blankets, opening his arms for Claire. She went to him, flipping off the lamp on her way.

"Sleep," Claire said, suddenly very aware that she was wearing only Owen's t-shirt and nothing underneath it.

"Sleep," he agreed, his lips brushing the back of her neck. Claire shuddered, pressing closer to him, turning around so she faced him. He kissed her gently, lovingly, and she melted into him, into his strong arms that held her so tightly.

"No nightmares tonight," she said, feeling that if she said it enough, it would come true.

"No nightmares tonight," Owen repeated, his head buried in the crook of Claire's neck.

Claire had a dreamless sleep that night.

…

The cellphone woke them up, scaring Claire half to death and making Owen groan and roll over, pulling a pillow over his head.

"Lowery?" she said, her voice clouded with sleep. "Did you find anything?"

"I found out your middle name is Josephine," said a deep voice that did not belong to Lowery. Claire sat straight up, pressing the speakerphone button so Owen could hear.

"Who is this?" she asked, now completely awake. Owen poked his head out from under the pillow, looking at Claire curiously.

"You know," said the voice, "I've really grown to hate the 'old fashioned' way of doing things over the years."

"What?" Claire asked, sharing a confused look with Owen.

"Progress. Modernization. Control. That's what always wins, Claire. That's why you're going to lose."

"Lose what?" Owen asked, his voice hard and angry.

"Owen! I wondered when I'd hear you. How've you been, buddy?"

Owen ignored the question, instead asking one of his own. "What are you planning with your velociraptor, Hunt?"

"Glad you recognized my voice, man. I'm also glad you know about Alice, because she's been outside your house all night, waiting for my command to kill you."

Claire looked out the small window in the bedroom with horror, trying to find the brightly colored scales of Hunt's raptor.

"Oh, she's not there anymore. But she is ready," said Hunt.

"Ready for what?" Owen asked, absentmindedly scratching the stubble that was beginning to grow on his chin.

"Ready to fight that blue pet of yours. See you in a couple days, Owen. And you, Claire Josephine. I'll definitely be looking forward to seeing you."

…

"Well," said Lowery. "This sucks."

Owen had driven himself and Claire back to Paddock Nine after a rushed breakfast and a change of clothes, filling up a knapsack with as much food as it could hold so they wouldn't have to worry about feeding themselves for a few days.

Claire had called Lowery on the way back, yelling at him over the roar of the motorcycle's engine, telling him everything that Hunt had told them.

Owen had gone out to work with Blue the second they had gotten back, pressing a hurried kiss to Claire's lips before locking the paddock door behind him. Claire had gone to the control room with Lowery, who had been trying his very best to disprove her and Owen's theory about the dinosaurs being used as weapons.

Now he sat in his chair, his back hunched, staring at Claire in a shocked, scared sort of way,

"We can't run from Hunt, or his raptor," Claire said. "They'd just find us again."

"And fighting makes sense because…. Oh no, wait. It makes _no_ sense at all. These are _velociraptors_. They will kill us," said Lowery.

"We have to stand our ground," Claire persisted.

Lowery rubbed his temples. "I'll be standing my ground from in here, thank you."

Claire frowned but kept her mouth shut. Lowery was more comfortable behind a computer than behind a velociraptor, and she couldn't really argue with that.

Eventually, Claire went downstairs, leaving Lowery alone with the leftover spaghetti they had brought him. Owen was riding around the woods on his motorcycle, Blue right on his tail. He was analyzing her every move, and, as best Claire could tell, Blue was doing the same to Owen. Once again, Claire marveled at their relationship, especially now that she'd seen Hunt abusing Alice, his raptor.

Maybe Hunt and Bridgette could control their animal completely, but Owen had the advantage of knowing Blue's nature, and of having her trust. She was fierce, smart, and would voluntarily giver her life to save Owen's. Claire had a feeling that, if given the choice, Hunt's raptor would simply run away from him.

"We can beat them," she said to herself, trying to believe it. "But the nagging question is this: Why are they here? What is the end goal?"

Why the heck did InGen even have this technology? What were they planning on doing with their unnatural robot dinosaurs? And, Claire had almost forgotten about them, what about those shock-switches that Wu was so confident in? What were they for?

"Too many questions," Claire said aloud. "No answers."

Owen walked into the viewing room with scratches all over his face and mud streaked on his arms.

"Trees," he said, gesturing to small cuts on his face.

"How are we going to do this?" asked Claire.

"What?" asked Owen, wiping the mud off of himself. "Engage in a raptor battle?

"Yes," said Claire, staring out at Blue, who was digging her claws into a tree almost like a cat would a scratching post.

Owen shrugged. "Just go with the flow, I suppose. These things are natural fighters, but they typically don't fight against members of their own species. Blue is used to being a leader among her pack, and Alice has never had a pack. I don't know how she'll react to seeing Blue again. She might fight Hunt's control and walk away, or she'll attack with everything she's got because she doesn't know what else to do."

"Or she doesn't have a choice," Claire said.

Owen smiled grimly. "That's why we have a plan, right?"

"Right," Claire agreed.

It was a dangerous plan, one that they had come up with on the fly, but it was one that could possibly work, depending on the level of mental abuse Alice had endured.

If Alice was completely submissive to Hunt, even without the microchip, then their plain would fail. But if she was even the slightest bit rebellious, then maybe, just maybe, they could pull this off.

Alice needed a chance to live naturally, like all animals should live. She shouldn't be afraid of getting shot in the forearm or shocked unnecessarily by electronic prods. How would she act if she had control over herself? IF she wasn't being dominated by Hunt?

"Come on," said Claire, pulling Owen up the stairs to Lowery's control room. "Let's get this plan organized."

"You and your organization," muttered Owen, seemingly annoyed, but Claire could tell he was smiling.

…

Bridgette didn't know how to fix this. One of their pachycephalosaurs was going completely wild, smashing everything it saw with its overly thick skull, and she couldn't get it to stop no matter what button she pressed on its remote. Bridgette couldn't even get the thing to go to sleep, and that was typically the easiest way to stop a rampaging dinosaur. Press the sleep button, and they were typically out of it in the next five minutes, but not this thing. It was completely off the grid; Bridgette had no control.

"Hunt!" she yelled, and he tramped into the room, cleaning the underside of his nails with a pocketknife.

"You are interrupting my training time," he said calmly, flashing the knife's sharp side at her. "I don't like that."

"Oh, sorry you can't cut up your raptor," said Bridgette sarcastically. "Look at this pachy." She pointed to the screen, where the pachycephalosaur's heartbeat was flashing. The cameras they had strapped to it _still_ hadn't uploaded and Bridgette didn't know why, but its tracking implant was going haywire because it kept moving so much.

"I can't get it to calm down," she said, fingering the small red switch on the pachy's control console, hoping Patrick would let her use it, just this once.

"So make it stop," Patrick said, not fully understanding Bridgette's predicament.

"No," she responded. "Its micro isn't working. I have no control over this thing."

Patrick's eyes lit up in evil excitement, and Bridgette really hoped that meant he would let her use the switch. She'd waited years for this.

"Flip the switch," he said. "I don't care if Wu wants us to wait until all of them are planted in the old dinos."

" _Yes_ ," Bridgette said, pressing the red switch that she'd wanted to use for so long.

The Pachy's tracking implant stopped working immediately, its remote control powering down automatically. Bridgette smiled, showing every one of her oddly pointed teeth.

"That was fun," she said, grabbing the keys to the off-road Jeep that was parked just outside the raptor containment unit. "I'm going to go look at it."

"Hurry back," said Patrick. "You don't want to miss the show."

"Oh yeah," Bridgette said. "How's Alice?"

Patrick smiled, a weird, awkward smile that looked like it didn't belong on his face. "Deadly."

 _AN: Guys. Apparently I write well to James Bond movies, because I watched Casino Royale, Quantum of Solace, and Skyfall while writing this. Seriously. I love Daniel Craig as Bond. And tell me if you got the Guardians of the Galaxy reference in the last chapter!_


	14. Claw

_AN The next two or three chapters will switch back and forth between Owen's POV and Claire's POV because…well, you'll see!_

"You know," said Lowery, "if this was a movie, there would be epic 'plan' music playing right now."

Claire and Owen looked at him, both raising an eyebrow. "What?" they asked in unison.

"When the main characters are working on this awesome, life threatening plan to save the universe, and there's always 'plan music' in the background," he said "It's epic."

Claire, who supposed Lowery must be losing his marbles after planning a raptor fight for a day and a half, shook her head at Lowery's joke, laughing to herself. Lowery made quips when he was anxious.

Owen, on the other hand, went quiet when anxiety hit. He was sitting against the wall with his eyes closed, running his knife blade through the thin layer of carpet beneath him. Claire knew he was planning, praying, mapping out what was about to happen.

He wouldn't let Blue die, Claire knew that much. But he wasn't just going up against a raptor. He was battling Hunt because Hunt wanted to fight. Claire remembered what Owen had told her about Hunt: _He's one of those guys who shouldn't be in charge, but thinks he should be_. For Hunt, this was a way to be on the top of the pyramid, to knock Owen out of the game. Claire wondered if Hunt even cared about Project K, or Jurassic World.

And he didn't seem to like Wu very much, judging by how Hunt had talked to him over the phone a couple days ago. Claire guessed that Wu was calling the shots now that Hoskins was dead, which Hunt most definitely hated. But if Hunt was supposed to run Jurassic World (or whatever InGen wanted to turn Jurassic World into) after Claire, Owen, and Lowery were out of the way, then what was Wu going to do? He was the type that needed glory, recognition of his intelligence.

"Yo, Claire," said Lowery, waving his hand in front of her eyes to get her attention. "Join the world of the living and help me."

Claire went back to work, still speculating about Wu and Hunt. They needed more information to prove their theories, but Claire wasn't sure there was anything left to be found.

But if there was anything, she'd find it in a few hours. Hopefully.

Claire looked at the papers scattered around them, then at the emergency shock prods in the corner, waiting to be strapped to her bag, just in case she needed them. She was gong on a solo mission.

The funny thing was, she wasn't very nervous. Claire figured it was like her career if she pushed herself, she could do it. Except this time, it was a mission to beat the people who were trying to kill them, not working her way up to a higher-paying position.

At least she'd have one of the standard-issue earpieces that the control personnel used. That way she could communicate with Owen and Lowery when they were separated. Claire hated not being in the know, especially if Owen's life was going to be in danger.

Claire looked at him now. He was still dirt-streaked from running around outside with Blue, and he was holding himself abnormally stiffly, still shredding the carpet with his knife.

"Owen," she said softly, knowing he would hear.

His eyes opened immediately, his gaze softer than usual.

"We'll be okay," she murmured.

"Come on," he replied, shoving his knife into its holster strapped to the back of his pants. He grabbed Claire's hand and lead her downstairs, shutting the door behind them.

"And I'm turning _off_ the intercom," said Lowery, eyeing Owen and Claire warily.

"If you see any movement out there, you run, hide, something," said Owen once they got into the viewing room.

"You're the one who has a velociraptor after him!" Claire said, yanking him towards her by his vest.

"Yeah," said Owen, backing Claire against the oversized window behind her, his arms on either side of her. "But think about what Hunt could have guarding that control room. What if you meet the T-Rex?"

"I'll figure something out. And we'll be able to communicate," Claire said, clasping her hands behind his neck.

"Communication is key," muttered Owen, his lips brushing the underside of Claire's jaw.

She groaned quietly and that was Owen's undoing, pushing her against the window, sucking at that spot on her neck that he knew Claire loved.

 _She'll be fine_ , he told himself, grunting in approval when she wrapped her legs around his waist. _She'll be fine._

Funnily enough, Claire was thinking the same thing. That is, until Owen pulled her face down to his, kissing her desperately, all teeth and tongue and love and fear.

They kissed until neither of them could breath, until they were holding each other so close that they almost couldn't tell who was who anymore.

…

Owen watched Claire leave several minutes later, his lips swollen and his mind buzzing. Maybe he shouldn't have kissed her like that so soon before he needed to focus on fighting an animal-abusing maniac, but he couldn't resist. Claire was…indescribable.

"You doing okay?" he asked her, pressing the little button on the side of the earpiece.

"I hate seeing this pavilion empty," she responded. "It's creepy without people."

"Don't forget about the roaming parasitosaurs and wild dinosaurs," Lowery chimed in, using his earpiece as well.

Owen snickered, practically hearing Claire's eyes roll at Lowery. "Yeah," she said, "I haven't forgotten them."

"Patrick Hunt, twelve o' clock," said Lowery.

Owen glanced out of the paddock gate and saw Hunt, Alice the wounded raptor, and that tech girl…what was her name? Brittany? Bridgette? Bridgette sounded right. Owen whistled for Blue, who appeared at his side immediately, nostrils flaring at the sight of the raptor that had attacked her.

"Yeah," Owen said, looking Blue straight in the eyes. "You remember her, don't you?"

Blue hissed, eyeing Alice and flicking her tail. She looked at Owen, then back at Alice, silently asking for his guidance. Owen shook his head slightly, holding his hand out flat to tell her to wait.

"Not yet," he said. "Wait just a little while."

Blue fidgeted, tapping her claws against the forest floor. She didn't want to wait. She wanted to attack Alice now, and Owen knew it. But she'd get her chance, and by then, Claire would hopefully have the computer. If that tech girl –Bridgette- had left it in the raptor paddock, anyways. If she had brought it with her, they were all screwed.

Owen pressed the button to unlatch the gate, its hinges squeaking in protest. Owen supposed that the gate to the T-Rex cage was the least used in Jurassic World; nobody had ever really had an excuse to enter or leave Paddock Nine until Claire set the T-Rex loose.

Owen smiled. The image of Claire outrunning a T-Rex was one he'd likely never forget. He'd been shocked and petrified by fear at the time, but in hindsight, Claire had been…hot.

"What are _you_ smiling at?" asked Bridgette, her voice nasally and high-pitched.

Owen shut the gate behind him, locking Blue in. He ignored Bridgette's question and instead studied Alice, who was much smaller than Blue, almost shrunken-looking, with red and green zigzags all over her body.

"You like her?" Hunt asked, walking up beside Bridgette. "Wu designed her specially. She's a whole new breed of raptor, smaller, fiercer, deadlier."

Owen exhaled sharply. "When are you people going to learn to leave these dinosaurs as they are? Stop making new breeds."

"Why?" asked Hunt. "Look at her. She's going to tear your pet to bits. Her claws are sharp enough to rip through steel, Owen. What chance do scales have?"

Alice's claws _were_ very sharp, glinting silver in the sun. But Blue was bigger, stronger, more powerful. She had lived a life surrounded by discipline and love from her pack mates and Owen, and she had the advantage of having natural hunting instincts; she wasn't being controlled by anyone. Blue was unpredictable to all but Owen, and he planned on using that to his advantage.

"What's the point of this, Hunt?" Owen asked. "Why attack us? Why try to get us out of the way? Your little bits of technology will eventually fail, you know. These are _dinosaurs_ , not robots."

The color drained out of Hunt's normally ruddy face for a moment; he didn't know that Owen knew about Project K.

"Oh, so you _do_ know about our little project," Hunt said, recovering quickly. "Do you know how much people will pay to have these things? Flesh robots? Come on, Owen. Get out of the past. Out with the old, in with the new."

"That your motto?" Owen asked, pulling his knife out of its sheath to twirl it around in his fingers. "You know this can't work."

"Where's the redhead?" Hunt asked, scanning the empty sidewalk with his dark eyes. "Claire Josephine!"

Owen glared at him, thankful that Claire was already gone. "You say you came here to fight, Hunt. Stop stalling, unless you're afraid."

Hunt glared at Owen. "I'm not afraid. I was just going to give you a chance to say goodbye to your little girlfriend, but whatever. I forgot how emotionally detached you are."

Owen stopped himself from punching Hunt, even though he really wanted to. There was no real reason behind this fight, and Owen knew it. Hunt just wanted to prove he was more powerful; he wanted to show Owen that InGen's technological dinosaurs could take out the old, natural dinosaurs in half a second.

Owen tapped his earpiece. "Open the gate," he told Lowery, who was up in the control room listening to everything that was being said. Lowery did, and Blue hissed loudly at Alice but stayed in the paddock, waiting on Owen's instruction. Owen felt a rush of pride in his raptor; she didn't need a computer telling her what to do and where to go.

"Come on," said Owen, using the tone that Blue responded best to. He pulled his clicker out of his pocket in case he needed it, but Blue slowly walked over beside him, her eyes never leaving Alice.

Hunt smiled, showing all his teeth. Owen counted three silver ones. "Oh, this is going to be good."

Bridgette plopped down to the ground and pulled out a little remote control and a joystick with the name _Alice_ scrawled on the back. She placed her finger on the joystick and Alice went still immediately; only her eyes moved, looking rapidly from Hunt to Blue.

"Well," said Hunt. "Have at it!"

 _AN: To Kfromcabin6: I think it'll be about 25 chapters with an epilogue for chapter 26, and I might post my notes and stuff for a 27_ _th_ _chapter! Thanks for all your reviews, follows, and favorites, guys. Love you all!_

 _Be prepared for adrenaline, action, suspense, and the whole nine yards in the next couple chapters, guys! This chapter was the calm before the storm._

 _Review!_


	15. Shock

_AN: Ready for a fight? Also, I watched like all of season 3 of Parks and Rec while writing this because…Chris Pratt._

Claire was pretty sure she was going to die.

She was hiding behind the open bar in the main pavilion; the only thing that hadn't gotten completely destroyed by the Indominus Rex. She pushed her bangs out of her eyes, checking her bag for more shock prods.

"Crap," she whispered, grabbing the last one. All the others were scattered around where the dinosaur had yanked them out of her grip.

Owen had been right. Hunt and Bridgette weren't stupid. Of _course_ they had left a dinosaur guarding the raptor paddock.

Claire just wasn't expecting a smaller version of the Indominus Rex to be chasing after her.

She remembered Hoskins talking about it in the lab, right before he was eaten by one of Owen's velociraptors.

 _"Imagine this,"_ he had said, _"but a fraction of the size."_

Well, Claire had no trouble imagining it now. She had bloody claw marks all up her arms from the thing, she was pretty sure it had sliced off a lock of her hair, and worst of all, the had a deep slash mark across her calf.

Claire peeked over the top of the bar, ignoring the fear that was slowly creeping through her bloodstream. She saw it just beyond the wreckage of the fountain, struggling to get up from where she had shocked it in its hind legs.

Claire yanked her cardigan out of her bag and tied it to her calf, using it as a makeshift bandage. She shook the prod sharply, feeling the jolt of electricity run through it as it powered up. She _had_ to get those other prods if she wanted to get out of this; Claire knew that if she hit the dinosaur with enough power, it would knock it out.

"Claire," came Owen's calm voice through the earpiece, startling her so much that she almost shocked herself with the spear.

Claire pulled herself up, grabbing the counter for support. She tested her weight on her injured calf gingerly, finding that she could stand unsteadily.

Claire grimaced in pain but pressed the button on her earpiece so she could talk to Owen, watching the mini Indominus out of the corner of her eye. Claire knew she couldn't run from it, not with her calf injured so badly.

She needed those prods.

"Owen," she said, limping around the counter. The Indominus mini had struggled to its feet, glaring at Claire with its reptilian eyes. It tapped its claws on the ground, waiting for Claire to make the first move. Claire, however, was focusing more on her lost weapons than the dinosaur; there was a prod not fifty feet away from her.

Claire inched towards in and snatched it up, thankful for the electric-blue light pulsing at the top.

"What's after you?" Owen asked, sounding out of breath. Claire could hear leaves crunching in the background, screeches coming from a wounded dinosaur.

"How'd you guess?" Claire said, holding her weapons aloft. Maybe Claire could stitch up her dying boyfriend, but self-defense was not her strong suit. Particularly against genetically modified dinosaurs that shouldn't exist in the first place.

"Heard you scream," Owen grunted. "Where'd it get you?"

"Hold on," Claire replied. The dinosaur ran for her, holding itself low just like Blue did, except there was no recognition in its eyes. Only hate. Claire swung her prod at it, aiming for its tail but missing, nailing it right in the back with the non-electric part of the spear. The dinosaur hissed but didn't do much else, the blow not strong enough to harm it.

Vaguely Claire wondered who was controlling this one, but she didn't have time to focus on that problem.

Claire jumped back as it lashed out with its claws again, barely missing having her stomach sliced open.

"Wish I had your knife," she muttered, tapping the earpiece.

"Me too," Owen responded. "I should've given it to you before you left."

The Indominus mini hissed at her, slowly circling her, its eyes following Claire's every move. Claire kept her hand frozen on the earpiece, mostly because her fear had frozen her, but partially because she needed Owen's reassurance.

"How's Blue?" Claire asked, the stupid small talk making her relaxed enough to start forming a plan. She had to get out of this if Blue was to survive; they had a plan, and Claire had to carry it out.

"Bloody," said Owen, his voice tight.

The dinosaur screeched at Claire, staring her down and snapping its teeth at her. She could get that other prod if she moved a bit closer to the Indominus mini, but she'd be within reach if its claws again.

The big Indominus was big, powerful and scary. This smaller one was the size of a raptor: lighter, faster, and just as fierce as its bigger relative. Claire wasn't entirely sure that her plan would work, but she had to try.

Claire stumbled forward, ducking down as it swiped at her again with its claws. She heard its teeth snap somewhere above her head as she ran for the other spear, holding the other two so they faced upwards, towards the Indominus mini.

"Ha!" she said, grabbing up the other spear. Claire rounded on the dinosaur, all three of her prods crackling with electricity. "Come after me now."

It did.

Claire screamed when she ran forward, both in fear and defiance, slapping its head to the side with the metal part of the spear so she could hit the softer flesh around its chest with the electric part.

The combined voltage of all three prods turned out to be too much for the Indominus mini. It fell over, twitching and shaking, its body trying to deal with the electricity now coursing through it.

Claire looked over her shoulder at Paddock Nine, where Owen was, briefly, but then carried on to the raptor containment unit, putting as little weight on her bad leg as possible.

…

Owen talked with Claire over the earpiece like they were both having casual, non life-threatening days at work to keep her calm. She was new to this oh-man-these-things-will-eat-me lifestyle, and anyways, he had heard her scream echo through the empty park. He had to make sure she was okay.

He was running through the woods around Paddock Nine now, chasing after Blue and Alice, whose fight had gotten so fierce that Owen wasn't sure either of them would survive it.

Hunt had stayed behind, laughing, staring at that girl's –Owen could never remember her name- computer, where the cameras strapped to Alice were showing them the battle.

Owen didn't have such a luxury, but it didn't matter anyways. No way he'd let Blue fight it out on her own. He pulled his gun off his shoulders, facing it forward. Something was hissing in pain through the trees ahead, and Owen prayed that it was Alice.

Owen didn't see the reptilian eyes glinting at him from behind, so focused was he on finding the source of the hissing noise.

He pushed through the trees, ignoring the swarms of mosquitoes surrounding him.

His heart nearly stopped when, finally, he saw a raptor through the leaves, blue streaks running the length of its body. Blue's tail flicked, slamming onto the ground with enough power to alert Owen that she was okay.

"Where are you?" he asked, peering around the woods for Alice. Everything was still for so long, no noise at all throughout the woods, that Owen had the faint hope that Blue might've killed her.

Alice was allowed to reveal herself just then, running at Owen with full strength, smashing him facedown on the forest floor. Her claws curved into his shoulders, her full weight on his back.

Owen struggled, trying to roll over, wondering why Hunt was preventing Alice from simply eating him when she so easily could.

"You have a thing for wounding others," Owen grunted, knowing Hunt could hear him through the cameras harnessed to Alice. "First the Indominus sliced my chest open, now this."

Owen kicked his leg up, hitting Alice straight in the tail. Her weight shifted as she tried not to fall over. "Blue!" he yelled, swinging his gun behind him, trying to hit Alice anywhere he could. If he could just roll over…

Blue screeched fiercely from somewhere above him and he heard the loud _chink!_ of claws hitting claws.

" _Yes_ ," Owen said when Blue forced Alice to get off him. He flipped over, tugging his gun with him, ready to shoot if he could.

Blue was backing Alice slowly deeper into the woods, claws outstretched and tail frozen in midair. Blood dripped from countless wounds on Blue's body, where Alice's claws had ripped straight through her skin.

Alice lunged forward but Blue snapped her teeth, clamping them down around her forearm, slamming her down on the ground. Alice simply hissed at stood up again, more than used to the pain; the scars on her body were evidence of her harsh training.

Claire was going to be a while. Owen knew that. Something had wounded her, and Owen wasn't allowing himself to feel scared for her because if he did, he might not be able to move. He could only have faith in her and know that she was trying her hardest to get to that raptor paddock.

And then he could only hope that what they needed was even _in_ the raptor paddock. If it wasn't, he was screwed.

Owen rolled out of the way as the velociraptors rampaged all over the place, destroying countless trees in their fury, blood flying all over the place. He cocked his gun, trying to get a clear shot at Alice, but she was moving around too much; Owen was afraid he might hit Blue.

"Come on, Claire," Owen said desperately. Blue was getting weaker, her strikes becoming slower.

Alice swiped at Blue, turning around and smacking her to the ground with her tail. She towered over Blue, hissing and spitting in anger. Blue struggled, pushing herself backwards with her bloody, weakened hind legs, trying to flip herself over so the softer flesh of her belly wouldn't be exposed. Alice screeched in triumph and Owen couldn't think anything other than _Blue was going to die_.

Suddenly Alice froze, her whole body trapped in spasms like she'd been shocked by one of ACU's lethal electric spears.

 _Claire_. She had done something, but Owen didn't know what.

Blue hissed and pushed herself up, snapping and swiping at Alice, ripping her skin to shreds until she was sure Alice was dead.

Hunt's howl of fury echoed through the empty park, but Owen didn't care. He was too busy trying to tend to his wounded raptor without getting his arms bitten off, and trying to contact Claire but the signal was fuzzy.

"Easy, Blue," he said, approaching her with his hands held out. She looked at him, trusting him but not necessarily wanting to be touched.

"You don't have much choice," Owen said, gesturing to her wounds. Blue hung her head, hissing softly in surrender.

Owen nodded, his whole body flooded with relief.

The relief didn't last long, however. The signal to the earpiece cleared up when Owen stepped cautiously towards Blue, and he heard Claire groaning in pain.

"Owen," she said shakily. "I need your help."

 _AN: I wonder what Claire did? Come back tomorrow and you shall find out!_

 _Review!_


	16. Gone

_AN: I got the most reviews I've ever gotten on that last chapter…and I can't see a single one of them until they get sent to my email because Fanfiction is being screwy and wow this sentence is never-ending so read on and thank you so much for the feedback!_

Claire had no idea what she'd done to Alice, but it had worked.

She'd found Bridgette's makeshift tech headquarters on the observation catwalk high above the raptor paddock and flipped the purple switch with Alice's name on it by accident; her hand was so slick from blood from her calf that it slipped onto the switch.

Claire had vomited right after that, the sight of her own blood proving to be too much for her. Other people's blood, she could handle. Seeing her own DNA leak out of her body was disturbing.

Claire heard Owen's sigh of relief through the earpiece and knew she must've done something right by hitting that switch. Relief flooded her momentarily, but the adrenaline from fighting the Indominus mini was starting to fade and Claire was really feeling the pain in her calf: sharp and unyielding.

"Owen," she said, touching the tip of her finger to the earpiece," I need your help."

She collapsed onto the catwalk, hoping that she had shocked the Indominus mini strong enough that it couldn't come and find her. She didn't have the strength to fight for her life again,

"Why is there always so much blood?" she wondered idly, shifting herself to a more comfortable position. The scratches on her arm hurt, but they weren't bothering her nearly as much as he leg. Every time Claire risked a look down at her badly bandaged calf, a wave of nausea crashed over her.

So Claire looked at the sky and forced herself to take deep breaths. She really didn't want to pass out. Not when she was alone like this.

"Where are you?" asked Lowery, startling Claire, who had momentarily forgotten about the earpiece microphones.

"The observation catwalk above the raptor paddock," groaned Claire, disturbed by how weak her voice sounded.

"You could've just said 'catwalk', you know. We know were it is," quipped Lowery.

"I'm on my way, Claire," said Owen. "Blue's with me. I don't even know where Hunt and what's-her-name are. I left them back at the entrance of Paddock 9."

"Oh, great," said Lowery. "I'm alone with two psychopaths."

Claire breathed in sharply, trying to lessen her pain in any way she could.

"What attacked you?" asked Owen. Claire could hear him crunching through trees as quickly as he could with a wounded raptor at his back.

Claire explained everything and discovered that, when she was talking, her leg seemed not to throb as much.

"So you just hit a switch and Alice died?" asked Lowery incredulously. "Seems too easy to me."

"Yeah, but InGen's lazy," said Owen. "They like to be able to do things with minimal effort. And it fits with my version of the story as well. One second Alice was alive and slashing at Blue, the next second she was twitching on the ground like she'd been electrocuted.

Claire tried to think through the haze of pain, knowing the answer was right in front of her but not being able to grasp it.

Something about a phone call was important, but Claire's befuddled brain couldn't form conscious thoughts anymore; she was seeing stars in her eyes, the nausea finally beginning to overcome her.

"Passing out," she said, tapping the earpiece so Owen would know.

"I'm coming," he replied, the concern in his voice making Claire smile for a moment before losing consciousness.

…

She woke up because something was hitting her in the face, and Claire really wanted it to stop. Then, of course, now she was awake she couldn't go back to sleep because her leg was on fire.

"Ow," she said, suddenly aware that her arms were being restrained by something. She struggled against the restraints, opening her eyes and seeing nothing but darkness, still feeling something hitting her in the face.

The thing pinning her arms to her side laughed softly and Claire's fear melted away immediately.

"Owen?" she asked, relaxing enough to realize that it was nighttime and she was being carried through the woods. Raindrops falling on her face had been what woke her up. "Ow," she repeated, the pain in her leg flaring when Claire tried to shift herself to see Owen's face.

"I've got you," he said, letting out a shaky breath. "Blue's beside us, by the way. You're hurt about as bad as she is."

"Where are we going?" Claire asked, nestling her head into Owen's warm chest. "And where's Lowery?"

Owen stopped abruptly and Claire heard Blue freeze too, sinking her claws into the soft forest floor. "There's a security outpost near here that we can spend the night in, but Claire, I don't know where Lowery is."

"What?" Claire nearly shouted, pushing herself against Owen to try and get free, but he only held her tighter. She stopped struggling only when the pain in her leg forced her to, resorting to crying into Owen's already-soaked shirt.

Owen started walking again, rubbing patterns in her back with his thumb. "He could be fine. We were talking after you passed out, trying to figure out where Hunt had gone, and then he just went quiet. That was a couple hours ago, and I've been trying to contact him ever since.

Claire tried to think rationally but found she couldn't. Her mind had seen too much the past couple weeks, her body was literally falling apart, and now Lowery had disappeared? It was too much.

"He really does deserve a raise," she murmured into Owen's shirt, laughing quietly at herself for not realizing it before now. "We make it out of this and I'm promoting him." Claire shifted to look at Owen. "We have to find him."

"I know," said Owen, squeezing her in reassurance. "He didn't leave us out here and we aren't going to leave him out there."

Claire sighed as Owen told her about the fight between Blue and Alice. It sounded horrible, but Blue seemed to be okay, trudging along beside them in the woods. Owen spoke occasionally to Blue, trying to keep her calm until he could get a good look at her injuries. Blue answered him in screeches and strange clicking noises, but to Claire it wounded as if Owen and Blue were having an actual conversation. Which, to some extent, she supposed they were.

Eventually they reached the small outpost, Claire unlocking the rusty door by pressing her finger against the recognition pad.

Owen moved to set Claire inside where it was dry, but she gently grabbed his shoulder to stop him.

"What?" he asked, his voice quiet.

"My leg is good for now, right?"

He nodded, looking slightly confused. "I want to look at it later, just to make sure everything is okay, but the bandages are good for now and you haven't bled through them yet, so that's a good sign."

"Just set me down out here, then. I like watching you and Blue together," she said, giving a small smile.

Owen grinned hugely. "I love you," he said, placing her in the damp grass just outside the tiny building. "Could you hold this flashlight?" He pulled a small LED flashlight out of his back pocket, handing it to Claire.

Claire shined it on Owen and Blue, who flinched away from the bright light and the unknown person holding it. She had deep claw marks all over her body, hissing and snapping at Owen when he tried to touch them. Claire had to cover her mouth with her free hand several times to keep herself from screaming.

Owen tended to her, trying his best to keep her in the light so he could see. He spoke to Blue in that gentle yet authoritative tone as he bandaged her up, telling her that Claire was no threat and that she'd be okay if she would just stand still.

Claire watched, enthralled. Blue would occasionally look at her curiously with her steely yellow eyes, but she never made a move to attack. She only blinked at Claire, like she was saying, "Owen trusts you, but I'm not sure if I want to."

"This is amazing," Claire breathed.

Owen nodded slowly, concentrating on a particularly deep gash in Blue's side. "Do you think that purple switch was one of those shock-switches that Wu was talking about?"

Claire gasped, making Blue hiss at her.

"Hey," Owen said, frowning at Blue. She looked at him balefully. "Don't give me that look; nobody is being aggressive here but you."

Blue stopped hissing.

"The shock-switches," said Claire cautiously, watching Blue to make sure it was okay for her to talk. Claire continued when Blue ignored her, looking instead at Owen, whose hands were dangerously close to her mouth. "That's what I was trying to remember earlier, before I passed out."

"It certainly looked like Alice had been shocked," said Owen, remembering how Alice had frozen up so suddenly. "But then Blue got ahold of her and I wasn't entirely sure what killed her: the raptor or the shock."

"That had to be it," Claire said, thinking of the phone conversation between Hunt and Wu. "That's InGen's insurance against their dinosaurs. If one is misbehaving, or it does something they don't want it to do, they can flip a switch and they'll be shocked to death."

Claire was confident that she was right. That _had_ to be the piece of Project K that they were missing. But those math formulas in the original file still nagged at her; they hadn't figured out what those meant yet.

"All done," said Owen, tapping Blue's spine twice with his fingertips. She looked at him and he nodded. Blue ran back into the woods, stepping gingerly with her wounded legs.

"Where is she going?" asked Claire, amazed that Owen would just let her go.

"She'll make a nest for herself near here somewhere," he said, picking Claire back up and carrying her inside the security building. It was small and cramped, with computers lining the walls and empty chip bags all over the floor, but it was dry and cozy. "I'll whistle for her in the morning."

"And then we find Lowery," Claire said, worry seeping through her body. He had to be okay. He was the only person, other than Owen, who had stuck with her and Jurassic World to the end, never leaving even though his life was in danger from the moment the Indominus Rex was unleashed.

"And then we find Lowery," Owen agreed, twirling her hair in his fingers gently. "I hated being separated from you, today."

"Me too," Claire said. "But it was a good plan we came up with."

The corners of Owen's mouth twitched up in a smile. "It was your idea, you know. Waiting until Hunt and that girl had left the raptor paddock so you could go and check out their tech."

"I'm just glad I helped," Claire said, her eyes beginning to close despite her throbbing leg and the worry for Lowery plaguing her mind..

Owen pressed his lips to her head and she leaned into him, slipping into an uneasy, dream-filled sleep.

 _AN: Lowery! We must find Lowery!_


	17. Follow

_AN: Read on!_

Lowery wasn't much of an "outdoors" kind of guy, and he especially hated the fact that mud was getting on his new shoes. Seriously. They were nice shoes.

But in the scheme of things, Lowery supposed he should be more concerned about being kidnapped than having mud on his shoes, because that Hunt guy was totally insane. Lowery had been watching the raptor fight from the control room, but when they disappeared into the woods with Owen, he had resorted to watching Hunt and the blonde girl that Lowery found intimidating. They had been glued to her computer screen the entire time, even before the raptors had run off. Lowery had wanted to yell at them that, hello, the fight was happening _right in front of them_.

But whatever.

Lowery had listened to Owen and Claire talk through the earpieces during the fight, keeping tabs on each other. He could've chimed in whenever he felt like it, but he just let them talk. Owen brought out a side of Claire that Lowery had never seen before; she was calmer, stronger, and Lowery liked it.

He'd remembered his personal safety when Hunt blew up, smashing Bridgette's computers to the ground and yanking her up by her air. Lowery had move away from the window quickly, so they wouldn't see him. _Now_ he tapped his earpiece, joining in with Owen and Claire's conversation to see where they were, make sure everyone was okay.

Claire was hurt, and badly. Owen was going after her with Blue. Lowery figured he could just stay in the control room to keep an eye on everything and wait for the security feed to flick to Claire so he could make sure she was okay.

Hunt had figured differently.

…

Claire had strange dreams filled with glowing purple switches that socked her whenever she tried to touch them.

She woke up to the still-dark security room, her calf throbbing. She sat up, trying not to disturb Owen, who was sleeping soundly on the rock-hard floor beside her.

Claire wanted to figure this out. This Project K stuff was really starting to get on her nerves; InGen had to be stopped before this escalated beyond Jurassic World. But in order to stop them, she had to know exactly what they were doing in the first place.

They had Wu. That much was clear. They had a clone of the Indominus Rex. That much was also clear. They had every species that Jurassic World had and then some, judging by the mini version of the Indominus that had attacked her yesterday.

Every single one of InGen's dinosaurs had microchips planted in their brains so they could be controlled. That was the one part of Project K that she, Owen and Lowery were completely sure of. The shock-switches had to be the insurance that InGen had on the microchips. If something happens and they lose control over their dinosaurs, they simply flip a switch and the problem is solved via a strong shock to the brain.

Claire pinched the bridge of her nose, wanting to go back to sleep but knowing that she'd have dreams if she did.

Last was the theory her and Owen had come up with. InGen using the dinosaurs as living weapons. It took Hoskins' objective and amplified it a few notches when you added the microchips; the danger factor of the dinosaurs lessened tremendously when they wouldn't be allowed to attack anybody from their own side. Claire shivered to think about how excited Hoskins would be, knowing that they could send flesh-robot dinosaurs into way. Maybe they would win battles, but what was the point? They would just cause mass destruction and terror.

"Stop thinking," Owen murmured suddenly, rolling over to face her. "You need sleep."

"How long have you been awake?" Claire asked, curling into him. He rested his head on her chest, squinting at her in the darkness.

"Don't know if I was actually asleep," he said. Claire slipped her icy hands under his shirt in an attempt to warm them up. Owen shuddered slightly. "Cold."

Claire laughed softly. "What are we going to do when we get out of this?"

Owen pulled her tight against him. "Probably hold each other like this, but with nothing chasing us and no blood."

Claire felt the rough bumps of his stitches underneath her. "I can do that."

"Good," he said, and now Claire wasn't afraid to go back to sleep, knowing she'd have no nightmares for the rest of the night.

…

They decided to retrace their steps in the morning figuring that they'd see if Hunt and Bridgette were back at the raptor paddock first, and then continue on to Paddock 9, where Lowery hopefully awaited them.

Claire's worry for Lowery intensified in the morning sunlight; she was certain that he would have found a way to contact them if he was all right. But Claire didn't have much time to think about Lowery; she had to figure out how to walk through the woods on an injured leg with a hungry raptor by her side. Claire knew Blue could smell blood, and Claire had quite a bit of it smeared across her calf.

Owen stood between the two of them as he helped Claire along, carrying her through particularly rough patches of trees when he needed to. Blue made no move towards Claire, not when she could see that Claire was no threat to her or Owen, but Claire was overly tense until they reached the obviously abandoned raptor paddock.

Blue perked up immediately, overjoyed to be home.

Owen let Blue romp around for a bit before setting a pig loose from one of the pens underneath the cage. Blue caught it in under a minute, snapping it up with her sharp teeth faster than Claire could believe.

They continued on slowly after that, thankfully countering no adversaries along the way. Claire was almost nervous at the emptiness; they didn't even see a stray pterodactyl flying through the skies.

She thought of Project K again, trying to sort through the confusion of it all, but Claire knew they were still missing something, even now that they knew what the shock-switches did.

They were missing the reason behind it all.

It had to go beyond InGen getting Jurassic World for themselves. Their technology was too advanced for that.

Claire needed to talk to Dr. Wu. She, Lowery and Owen could not figure this out on their own, so why not try to squeeze information out of the slippery guy behind the entire thing? He had to at least be near Isla Nublar, even if he wasn't on it.

Owen motioned for Claire to stop moving, pulling her behind the very same bar she had hidden behind a day earlier when the Indominus mini had been attacking her. Blue stood tall beside them, on alert, scratching the sidewalk with her claws.

"What is it?" Claire asked, trying to peek over the top of the counter.

Owen pulled her back down and even Blue crouched, bending over where her legs met her torso, trying to avoid being seen.

"Indominus?" she asked, flattening herself against the back of the counter.

Owen nodded silently. Claire heard the telltale footsteps slowly getting nearer, paranoid that the Indominus would hear her pounding heart.

But the threat passed; it walked right by them and didn't turn around. Claire poked her head up in astonishment, staring at its retreating form.

"Where's it going?" muttered Owen. "It had to have smelled us, especially with you having an open wound."

Claire narrowed her eyes at it. "Come on," she said, trying to get up but failing because of her calf.

Owen stood up and offered her his hand. "Follow the killer?"

Claire smiled. "It bypassed us for a reason."

Owen sighed. "We're turning into a couple of lunatics, voluntarily following this thing."

"Possibly," said Claire, turning wistfully to look at Paddock Nine. "Lowery isn't in there, is he?"

Owen tapped his earpiece and talked into it, knowing that there was plenty of signal here; the message should get through to Lowery if he was in the control room.

There was no reply.

Claire frowned. Lowery _had_ to be out here somewhere, and it looked to her that following the Indominus was their best bet in finding him.

…

Hunt was pissed. Bridgette was an idiot. Who leaves a stupid shock-switch just sitting around, waiting for someone to flip it?

Idiot.

Now Alice was dead, Grady and Claire knew about the switches, their Indominus mini had been killed by someone (Hunt assumed that had been Claire's doing), and they were camping out in the Gyrosphere unit with the stupid, tame herbivores.

Of course, they had taken that OCD computer guys who had hacked into their system. That was something.

Hunt wasn't entirely sure what he wanted to do to the nerd yet, but he definitely wanted Grady and Claire to see the carnage. They had killed Hunt's prize pet, and now he had their trusted nerd.

Hunt was going to hurt the nerd mostly because he hated to think that _Grady_ was winning. Winning what, Hunt didn't really know. But Hunt did not like being second in anything, and he'd never quite forgiven Grady for being promoted above him in the Navy, and for getting the velociraptor job that he, Hunt, had wanted.

"They're following it," said Bridgette, staring at her laptop screen. "Told you they would fall for it."

Hunt smiled and ran his tongue over all three of his silver teeth. Maybe things weren't as bad as he had thought.

 _AN: I know this one is short! Sorry about that. But things are really coming together and I'll see you tomorrow (July 5_ _th_ _) for more!_

 _Review!_


	18. Scream

_AN: I wrote this to the Guardians of the Galaxy Awesome Mix Vol. 1, and, of course, the Jurassic World soundtrack. I am a complete nerd, guys. I probably need help. But anyways; I really had fun writing this chapter, and I'm currently writing this at 1:00 in the morning so I can update it at 8:00 AM! So there's that!_

"This isn't going to end well," muttered Owen. He pushed through a leafy plant, holding the leaves back for Claire. Blue smashed straight through them, her eyes looking wildly after the Indominus Rex several yards in front of them.

"I know," said Claire, trying to walk as fast as she could on her injured leg. "I don't care. We're finding Lowery."

Owen winked at her. "Daredevil."

Claire grinned. She supposed that they'd been in enough life-threatening situations lately to joke about it.

"Are you _flirting_ with me, Mr. Grady?" Claire asked, nudging him on the shoulder.

Owen laughed. "Only with you, Claire."

Claire felt her cheeks flush, and it only got worse when Owen slid his arm around her, lifting her over a particularly jagged rock in her path.

Owen tried unsuccessfully to hide a smile when he saw Claire blush; it clashed fantastically with her hair and lit up her face in a way he couldn't get enough of.

Blue clicked her tongue at them, almost like a schoolteacher scolding a student. Owen busted out laughing and Claire's face got even redder; a velociraptor had busted them. She glanced up at the Indominus, who was still marching steadily on. It hadn't looked back at them once, despite all the noise they were making.

"This is going to be a trap," Claire said, pushing her sweaty bangs out of her face.

"Yeah," said Owen. He stopped walking. "Blue!"

Blue cocked her head at him. Owen held out his hand, glancing at the tiny compass on his watch. Blue followed his motion with her head, waiting to see what he was going to do. Owen pointed through the trees, staring directly at Blue.

"Stay close," he said, waving his hand dismissively. Blue turned around and sprinted off, screeching loudly as she fought through the undergrowth.

Claire looked at the Indominus, certain that Blue's screech would draw its attention, but it stared fixedly ahead, pushing down trees as it made its way…somewhere.

"I'm not dragging Blue into this," said Owen. "I don't know what Hunt would do to her if he ever got ahold of her. She can stay near us in case we need her."

Claire nodded in agreement. She felt strangely attached to Blue now, after their adventures the past few weeks.

They walked for what felt like forever, Claire ignoring the ever-increasing pain in her leg. Eventually the trees began to thin out, and Claire recognized the big steel gate towering in front of them; it was the very gate she and Owen had shut a few days earlier. They had reached the Gyrosphere Unit.

The Indominus crashed through the gate robotically, moving its arms stiffly like breaking the gate was the last thing it wanted to do. Claire entwined her hand with Owen's needing his support. He squeezed her hand, his skin rough against hers.

"He's gonna be mad," said Owen, pushing through the thick grass.

"Hunt?" Claire hopped one-footed over a fallen tree trunk. It was obvious that Hunt was waiting on them, luring them out with the Indominus. Yes, it would be insanely dangerous to meet him in person, but Claire didn't care. He could have Lowery, and she was determined to get him back.

"Yep," said Owen, rubbing his stubble with his knuckles. "I'm not going to let him get too close to you. You killed his favorite pet, and he won't take too kindly to that."

"I wish I still had my heels," Claire said wistfully, thinking of her favorite pair of shoes.

"Why?" asked Owen incredulously.

"Much better to kick with," said Claire, smirking at the look of wonderful delight on Owen's face.

"Feisty," he murmured, running his hand through his hair. Claire remembered back when they were in his house, and she'd not been able to fit into his boxers. He'd done the same thing then: ran his fingers through his hair.

Claire covered her mouth with her hand to stifle a laugh. She'd found Owen's tell! His "I am really attracted to you right now" tell. Claire brainstormed, trying to think of ways to make him do it again.

Claire's thoughts were interrupted by a laugh. A creepy, deep laugh that sounded more like a weird growl. Owen's arm shot out, pushing her behind him. Claire gripped his back, accepting the protection gratefully, looking everywhere for the source of the laugh.

The Indominus Rex suddenly picked up the speed, running through the rolling hills of the plains. Claire and Owen didn't even try to follow it; they simply scanned the fields for Hunt, knowing that he was the one that had laughed.

"Knew you'd follow it," said a voice, coming from a spot somewhere to Claire's right. "You kill my raptor, I take your friend."

"Where's Lowery?" aasked Owen. He wasn't bothering to look for Hunt in the grass; instead focusing on Claire. His green eyes bore into hers, silently telling her to be calm. Claire knew he could feel her shaking, but whether if was fury or fear she didn't know.

Because Claire was mad. She _hated_ this guy. He had his own unauthorized specimens of every single one of Jurassic World's dinosaurs, he _enjoyed_ controlling them, he was bent on killing Claire and Owen, and he had taken Lowery. Claire was boss. Not this guy.

She missed her heels.

"Okay, enough," Owen said. "Get out here."

Hunt's head popped over the grass, his face smeared with dirt. Claire would've laughed at the ridiculousness of his expression if he didn't look so murderous at the same time.

"Claire Josephine!" he said, his voice filled with fake-enthusiasm. Claire knew the tone well; she'd used it enough times when trying to get sponsors for some of Jurassic World's assets.

Owen clenched his jaw angrily. "I really wish you had your heels," he said, his voice meant for Claire's ears only. "I'd love to see you nail him in the face right about now."

Claire pushed past Owen and marched up to Hunt, ignoring Owen's sound of protest. "You _stop_ ," she said, punching him hard in the jaw. It hurt her hand like crazy, but Claire didn't care. Owen ran forward and pulled her out of Hunt's reach, but Hunt was so stunned that Claire doubted he would've returned the hit.

"That was so-" Owen began, but Claire cut him off, smashing her lips into his.

Owen went with it, forcing her mouth open, kissing her roughly and in a way that was so _Owen_.

"-Stupid," Claire finished, twisting her fingers in his hair.

" _Hot_ ," Owen corrected, pulling her back to him. Claire's brain dissolved into mush, and she completely forgot where she was until Hunt cleared his throat, his annoyance obvious.

They broke apart regretfully. Hunt glared at them, a shadow of a bruise already forming on his jaw. "Let's go," he said, turning around and marching forward, his hand twitching in anger.

Owen kissed Claire one last time and they followed Hunt across the plains.

…

Hunt lead them to a tent right in the middle of the field, where Bridgette sat, glued to her computer screen.

"Nice punch," she said, nodding to Claire. Hunt kicked Bridgette in the arm, causing her to squeal like one of Owen's training pigs.

Claire didn't even wonder how Bridgette had seen it; she was too busy looking around for Lowery.

"He's not here," Hunt said. "We had him here earlier today, but I moved him. I don't like having all my _assets_ in one spot."

Claire tensed at the use of the word asset. Hunt wasn't an idiot. He knew how she used to see these dinosaurs prior to the Indominus escape, and Claire wasn't proud of that.

"Where is he?" Owen asked.

Hunt shrugged. "Tell you later. Or not. It depends."

"On what?"

"Give us Jurassic World. Or un-kill my raptor, whichever you want."

Claire was tempted to punch him again. "Just give this up. Whatever you're doing, whatever Project K is supposed to do, whoever you want to sell these dinosaurs to, just stop."

Hunt looked surprised. "You know more than I thought you did, Claire Josephine. How long did it take you to figure out that we had a buyer for our dinosaurs?"

"Not long," said Owen, which was partially the truth. They had talked about their theory, the using-the-dinosaurs-as-weapons theory on the way over, and it was obvious that money was involved somehow. "We figured you had a reason for this, and that "out with the old, in with the new" crap just wasn't going to cut it."

"Yep. We're using these things as weapons," said Hunt. "You have to admit that it's genius."

"Or incredibly stupid," Owen said. "Let animals be animals, Hunt. Tell InGen to stop this crap."

"InGen?" Hunt said, laughing his weird laugh again. "This goes so much higher than _InGen_. We have a buyer. They want our weapons, our very own _assets_. The buyer proposed Project K to Wu, and Wu developed it. So the real question you want to be asked is…"

"Who's the buyer?" Claire asked.

Hunt smiled, making Claire cringe. She hated seeing cavity fillings, and Hunt had three of them. Brush your teeth, creep!

"None of your business," Hunt said, picking something up off the ground. He walked forward quickly, his leg shooting out faster than Claire could react, kicking her injured calf.

Claire lost her balance and fell over, suddenly finding herself facing one of ACU's electric spears. She froze, her eyes widening. Owen had his gun cocked and pressed against Hunt's chin in two seconds, his eyes burning with hate.

"Set down your gun, Grady," said Hunt. "Or she'll get it."

Owen bent down and laid his gun in the grass slowly, keeping his eyes on Hunt. Hunt pulled the spear away from Claire, turning it to Owen instead.

"She punches me, I stab you," he said, spearing Owen directly in the stomach, his body shaking with electricity. "That's how this works."

Claire's screams echoed all across Isla Nublar.

 _AN: Sorry for the cliffhanger, but it is 2:35 in the morning and I would love some sleep!_


	19. Knife

_AN: 19 is my favorite number, so obviously I'm excited about giving you this…painful chapter. And we have Owen's POV!_

Owen was laying facedown on cold, damp dirt. He felt weak, shaky, like he was recovering from a bad flu. His body hut everywhere, the pain centered on a spot just above his navel; Owen assumed that was where he'd been speared.

"Thank you God for nonlethal shock prods," he muttered, rolling himself over, his muscles screaming in protest.

"I really wanted that spear to kill you," came Hunt's voice from somewhere above him. Owen briefly considered whistling for Blue but decided against it. Who knew what other weapons Hunt had hidden up his sleeve? "That girl has a set of lungs on her. You should've heard her yelling after I stabbed you. I bet she's a screamer in bed."

"I wouldn't know," said Owen, ignoring the pain wracking his body when he sat up. He turned to face Hunt, who was leaning against a tree, holding his electric spear.

"But you _want_ to know," said Hunt, flicking a piece of dirt off the bottom of the spear's handle.

"Why are we talking about this?" Owen asked, trying to keep the anger out of his voice. He hated Hunt's lewd jabs at Claire; it dug at Owen in a way he wasn't prepared for.

"Because I want to piss you off," answered Hunt.

"Well, you've succeeded," said Owen bluntly. "Where's Claire?"

Hunt laughed. "You really like her, don't you? Never thought I'd see tough old Grady fall for anyone."

Owen grunted.

"Ah, well. I'm not going to tell you where she is because I don't really want to. She's alive; I'll give you that much. And she probably isn't in near enough pain as you're about to be in."

Owen laughed roughly. "You electrocuted me, idiot. What else are you going to do?"

Hunt pulled out his knife, the tip blunt from where he'd slammed the blade across various rocks in his anger at Alice's death. He searched Owen's face for any hint of fear, of the horror he so craved, but Owen only blinked and set his jaw defiantly.

"Is there a point to any of this?"

Hunt smirked. "I feel like it. And Wu wants me to _question_ you." He ran the sharpest part of the blade over the pads of his fingers. It barely scraped off the top layer of skin.

"Questioning me about what?" Owen eyed Hunt's knife with well-concealed apprehension.

Hunt clenched his fist around the knife's handle. "You'll see. You want to guess how many times I'm gonna have to drag this over your skin before it draws blood?"

Owen raised his eyebrow. "Too many."

Hunt laughed. "Lets get started, then!"

Owen bit the inside of his jaw hard enough to draw blood. No sound would come out of him, no matter how much he hurt. Owen wasn't going to give Hunt the satisfaction of knowing he had caused pain.

…

Claire didn't remember passing out, but she _did_ remember waking up abruptly to a sharp whistling noise.

She was in the tent, which was so high-tech that Claire was tempted to call it a makeshift control room. There were a couple of cots, a small camping stove, and several laptops clustered against the canvas wall. Claire could see a shadow in one of the corners of the tent; a man was just sitting calmly in a chair, keeping his face hidden in darkness. Bridgette was kneeling over the stove, stirring something into a few mugs.

"Tea?" Bridgette asked, offering a mug to Claire. Claire almost accepted it, the caffeine calling out to her, but she thought better of it and shook her head. Bridgette shrugged. "Your choice. It's good tea."

"Owen," Claire said, voicing the only thing on her mind. She wasn't surprised to find her voice reduced to a whisper; she had screamed herself hoarse after Owen had been stabbed.

Bridgette rolled her eyes and handed one of her mugs to the person in the corner, whose face was still hidden cunningly from Claire. " _Owen_. He's alive. Or, at least, he was alive when Hunt dragged him into the woods a couple hours ago. No telling how he is now."

Claire felt a sick swooping in her stomach. Probably Bridgette was toying with her emotions, but Claire knew that Hunt was terrifying and had no morals. Who knew what he was capable of doing to Owen?

"Lowery, then," Claire said, pushing herself into a sitting position. She felt a little lightheaded, but it could be a lot worse.

"The weird one? I don't even know where he is. Hunt didn't tell me. I'm pretty sure he's alive as well. No point in killing that one; he didn't know anything about what we're doing here."

Claire had a rush of pride in Lowery. He knew _everything_ about what InGen was doing. Well, he knew everything that Claire and Owen knew, at least.

"I'm supposed to ask you what you know about Project K," said Bridgette.

Claire sighed. She felt like her shoulders were being forcibly pushed down by worry. She couldn't get the image of Owen shaking with the force of electricity out of her mind; it kept replaying over and over, torturing her. Claire wanted to scream or kick something, but Claire knew that wasn't possible. Her voice had died and plain was flaring up her injured leg where Hunt had kicked it. Claire didn't really mind the pain all that much, though; it pulled her to the present, kept her mind on what mattered.

"Ask away," said Claire, some of the strength returning to her.

Bridgette sat down on the ground and made herself comfortable, pulling a fluffy purple blanket over her legs. She turned to face the guy in the corner. "Well? You gonna squeeze info out of her or not?"

The person moved out of the shadows; his short, dark hair impeccably smooth, his dark turtleneck making him look overly cool and refined.

Claire took a deep breath. "Dr. Wu."

Dr. Wu sipped his tea. "Claire. What have you done to this park?

...

Claire didn't care about any of Wu's questions. He asked her about the files they had found, about Alice and the purple switch, about the Indominus mini she had shocked to death, and a bunch of other things that had happened over the past few days.

Claire answered in a monotone, not paying one bit of attention; she couldn't think straight knowing that Owen was alive and alone out there with Hunt. She felt empty, lost, without Owen or Lowery. They were the two people she'd been able to rely on from the beginning of this, and now both of them were gone somewhere, victims to Hunt's insanity.

"When did you start working for InGen?" Claire blurted out, interrupting Wu mid-sentence.

He sat back in his chair, draining the rest of his tea without spilling a drop on himself. "I am…underappreciated at Jurassic World, Claire. I always have been, even when it was called Jurassic Park and our biggest enemy was a loose T-Rex. InGen realized my potential; they knew I could go above and beyond de-extinction, advance technology even further. So now I work for them.

"I think you could stand to be taken down a few notches," said Claire, starting angrily at him.

Wu shrugged, "Maybe you're right, But InGen has done nothing wrong. We've only found out ways to better protect ourselves from these animals. Our Indominus Rex could never escape its cage. Not with this technology."

"It could, too," muttered Bridgette, typing angrily on her keyboard. "The microchips are messing up."

"And what do we have the switches for?" asked Wu angrily.

Bridgette sighed, rolling her eyes like nobody understood her. "In case something unpredictable happens."

Wu nodded. "Insurance, Claire. That's all Project K is. Out with the old, in with the new."

"You helped _design_ the old!" Claire exclaimed. "Without you, none of this would exist in the first place. Stop trying to destroy everything you've created,"

Wu sat quietly for a moment, thinking. "That's why Project K makes so much sense. Look at what happened when one of our most innovative dinosaurs escaped. Mass destruction, pandemonium, several deaths, etc. Project K is about progress. Much-needed progress. The old dinosaurs simply aren't adapting to this word rapidly enough. I say it's time for us to allow them to be as strong as they could be."

Claire placed her head in her hands. Did nobody understand that _these were actual animals_? She thought of Lowery, who had asked her the very same question only a few weeks before, when Claire had been worried about a stray pachy roaming across the West Plains.

"You're crazy," Claire said, turning away from both of them.

…

Owen had felt pain before, but nothing like this. Hunt had worked the blade over his quads, the most sensitive part of his thighs until Owen could barely think consciously anymore; he had almost passed out from the pain.

Hunt's "questioning" had been nothing more than Hunt slicing Owen, asking him perverted questions about Claire. Owen guessed that there were a few specific questions he was supposed to ask, about the extent of his knowledge of Project K, but Hunt was blinded by jealousy, anger, and his weird obsession with Claire. He was focused more on tormenting Owen than on what InGen wanted him to do.

That was Hunt's weakness. He no longer cared about Project K. He didn't want Jurassic World. He wanted to be more powerful than Owen. That was his end goal. And Owen could use that against him, somehow. He wasn't sure how yet; he couldn't think clearly through the pain shooting up his legs.

Owen didn't even know where Hunt was. He'd kicked Owen in the back a few minutes ago, forcing him back down in the dirt, and stalked off somewhere. Owen was alone in the woods, trying to keep himself conscious. He tried to roll over but found he couldn't; he didn't have enough strength left in him to move. That was why Hunt had left him unguarded, Owen assumed. He needn't worry about Owen getting up an walking away, not when Claire was a hostage and his legs were cut up so badly.

So Owen lay on the ground and breathed deeply, trying to find some string of hope to get him through this, to keep him from passing out. The only thing he could think of was the assurance of Claire's life; Hunt wouldn't kill her. Not when he was so obviously obsessed with her.

Owen debated with himself for a moment on whether to call for Blue or not. She'd certainly help him, but would it be too risky? Hunt wouldn't hesitate to kill her.

But, as it turns out, Owen didn't have to worry about calling for Blue. He heard footsteps approaching before he could make a decision, and felt himself being rolled over.

"Dude," said Lowery. "What did they do to you?"

 _AN: LOWERY!_

 _Review! And to those who have asked, my next update will be July 7th (tomorrow)!_


	20. Rescue

_AN: Guys. This is chapter 20, and I'm planning on a 25-chapter story (with an epilogue for chapter 26 and all my notes and plans for this fic will be chapter 27- behind the scenes!) But the point is that I'm almost done and that freaks me out!_

"How did you find me?" Owen asked, breathing unevenly from the pain. He was digging through his pockets for anything to help him. He wished Claire was here with her little bottle of Tylenol; it wouldn't do much, but it might've taken the edge off a little. "And where were you?"

"Well," began Lowery, "Hunt and Bridgette snatched my from the control room after the raptor fight. Knocked me out." He pushed his hair back to show a knot on his forehead. "That hurt like crazy."

Owen pulled off his shirt and ripped in half, patting it gently on his thighs to clear up the blood. The cuts weren't deep, but they were jagged and messy and Owen needed to clean them before an infection could set in.

"They held me here for a while," Lowery continued, "and then they moved me to one of their other campsites. They have tents set up all over the park. Hunt's super paranoid that you guys will sneak up on him when he isn't expecting it."

"Well, that's exactly what we're going to do," said Owen. "Right now."

Lowery looked at Owen like he was insane. "You can't walk!"

"I can walk," said Owen. "Probably."

"It's nighttime," Lowery protested. "We can't see."

"All the better."

"But I haven't finished my story!"

Owen sighed. "Tell it on the way. I'm not leaving Claire alone with them. I promised her I wouldn't let Hunt get too close to her, and I'm going to keep that promise."

Lowery chewed his fingernails nervously, but extended his hand out to Owen and helped him up. Owen staggered, feeling dizzy and weirdly hollow from the electric spear. His legs ached, but they were manageable. Lowery just shook his head at Owen and started tramping through the woods, heading for the fields.

"As I was _saying_ ," continued Lowery, "they moved me somewhere and asked me tons of questions about Project K and you guys, where you were and what you were doing. I didn't answer any of them, but Hunt didn't seem too upset about it. It helped that I really _didn't_ know where you and Claire were, because that's all Hunt really seemed to care about. I honestly think he couldn't care less about Jurassic World or InGen or any of it."

Owen stepped gingerly over a fallen tree. "I know. He's lost his sense of purpose. He'd rather prove he's stronger than me and Claire than sit around and control dinosaurs all day."

"So why didn't he kill you when he could?" asked Lowery. He pushed his glasses up to his forehead, wiping away the sweat that had gathered underneath his eyes.

"I don't know," answered Owen truthfully. "Someone's holding him back. Wu, probably. He's got to be around here somewhere, making sure things go the way he wants them to."

"Yay. A maniac forced to hold in his fury. That'll be fun to deal with. Anyways, they questioned me at the other campsite for a few hours, tied me to a tree, and left. I scraped the rope they used to tie my wrists against the bark of the tree 'til the rope snapped. Then I decided to head back here; I wanted to see if Hunt had returned to the Gyrosphere unit or moved to a different location. It was pure luck that I stumbled across you."

"Hunt's turned InGen's project into a personal quest for himself. We can break him. I'm just not sure how."

"Probably by shooting him in the face," said Lowery.

Owen laughed. "That'll do it. And Lowery?"

Lowery glanced up at Owen, his eyes leaving the ground just long enough for him to trip over a tree root and fall flat on his face. Owen helped him up, laughing even harder at his disgruntled expression.

"Yeah?" he said, brushing twigs out of his hair impatiently.

"Thank you."

…

Claire was so exhausted that she barely woke when she felt herself being moved. She thought it was part of her dream, and she simply rolled over, involuntarily putting herself closer to the person who was scooping her up in his arms and running silently out of the tent.

Claire did awake, however, when the person carrying her collapsed to his knees several feet outside of the tent, the effort of carrying her too much for his tired, sore body.

"W-what?" Claire said sleepily, her voice hoarse and strained. She felt herself being lowered to the ground; she could see the broad-shouldered outline of someone crouching over her.

"Claire," said Owen, his voice breaking. He fell over her, partly because he couldn't physically hold himself up anymore and partly because he was so relieved she was okay that he just wanted to hold her.

"Owen?" Claire tried to wrap her arms around him but couldn't; Wu had bound her wrists and ankles together before he had gone to bed, assuring her that if she tried to escape, Hunt would kill Owen.

"Claire," Owen repeated. She could feel him shaking against her and maybe she was trembling too. She scraped some dirt off his face with her thumbnail, hardly believing he was here. She felt something warm dripping from him onto her legs, running off her thighs and onto the ground. Blood.

"I didn't know if you were dead, he _shocked_ you, you're bleeding, oh, thank God you're okay, what did Hunt do to you?" Claire prattled on and on, trying to make herself realize that Owen was here and Hunt hadn't killed him. She didn't realize she was crying tears of relief until Owen brushed them off her cheeks, looking down at her in such a raw way that Claire almost felt she could see straight through him to his soul. "Untie me," she murmured, breaking off her anxiety-filled babbles.

Owen rolled off her and slid his knife out of his belt, slicing through the ropes that bound her so tightly. Claire tried her best to see him clearly in the faint starlight, wishing the moon was full so they'd have more light.

Claire ran her hands along his thighs, where she could see a dark liquid –the blood that had dripped onto her- gleaming in the faint light, stopping where she felt fabric tied roughly against his skin. His pants had been torn to shreds by something; they were nearly ripped all the way through. She untied the bandages that used to be Owen's shirt, revealing the bloody mess underneath. "What happened to you?" she asked, tracing the uneven slash marks that decorated his skin.

"Hunt," Owen groaned, taking her hands in his. "Claire-"

He stopped talking abruptly when Claire pressed her lips to his broken, bloody skin. She didn't care if blood got all over her, or whatever. Claire kissed his pain away, her lips cold against him.

"What did he do to you?" she asked quietly, her face somewhere near his kneecap.

"Knife," Owen muttered. "That wasn't the worst part, though. He wouldn't _shut up_ about you, about what he wanted to do to you. I was so afraid he'd come back and do what he said…" Owen trailed off, shuddering.

"He never came back to the tent," said Claire, who was now rooting through her bag for the little bottle of peroxide she had thrown in there. "Sorry about this." She poured most of the bottle onto his legs, the liquid bubbling the second it touched blood. Owen arched his back in pain and clutched at Claire desperately, but kept quiet so he wouldn't wake Bridgette and Wu, who were sound asleep in the tent. "I thought he was still out here with you. _Wu_ thinks he's still out here with you. Or that's what he told me. I guess it could've been an empty threat."

"Wu?" Owen questioned, his voice shaky. "I knew he had to be on Isla Nublar, trying to control Hunt."

Claire nodded and told him about Wu's twisted goal with Project K: unnecessary (in Claire's point of view) progress. They speculated about the buyer that Hunt had spoken of, trying to guess who would be sick enough to purchase flesh-robot dinosaurs from a non-reputable company like InGen. She retied the torn shirt around both of his legs, making sure all the slashes were covered.

"Hunt said that all of this, all of Project K, was the buyer's idea. Does that mean we have another person on Isla Nublar trying to kill us? Because if you get hurt one more time, you're going to fall apart," said Claire in frustration.

Owen chuckled grimly, looking down at himself. Claire's stitches were sewn unevenly across his chest, running all the way down to his right hip. He had two small circular marks branded into his stomach from the shock-prod, and now his thighs looked like Blue had taken her claws to them. If the buyer _was_ on the island, that did not bode well for either of them. "I hope not. Oh, and Claire? Lowery's fine. He's asleep somewhere in the woods, but fine."

Claire's face broke out in a smile. "Did you just leave him over there alone?"

A guilty flush spread over Owen's cheeks. "He wanted to wait until daybreak to make sure you were in there before busting in, but I couldn't leave you in that tent with them."

"I'll hear his story later," Claire said, looking over at the woods where Lowery was sleeping. "He'll want to tell it himself."

Owen nodded in agreement, remembering how weirdly enthusiastic Lowery had been to tell Owen about his kidnapping.

"So Hunt's out there somewhere," Claire said softly, laying flat on her back. The stars shone down on them, making the field glow with a dim silver light. "We'll have to find him, won't we?"

Owen sighed. "Yeah. We probably should sleep first, though."

Claire laughed. "You probably should _heal_ first."

"That might be a good idea," said Owen, playing with the ends of her hair. "I don't know if we'll have that much time, though."

Claire glanced back at the tent. Wu was going to be so mad when he woke up and she wasn't there; he had been so confident that she would stay because Hunt had Owen. But Hunt had left Owen because he had been blinded by pride, jealousy and rage all at the same time and Claire had been rescued right underneath Wu's too-smart nose.

"Come on," said Claire, standing up. "Let's go find Lowery and sleep. We've got a lot to do." She held out her hand to Owen, who accepted it gratefully, heaving himself up to unsteady feet. She let him lean on her as they made their way to the trees, trying their best to move silently.

"We'll figure out a plan in the morning?" Claire asked when they reached Lowery. She settled down on a bed of soft grass, resting her back against a large rock.

Owen fell down beside her, lying awkwardly on his back so he wouldn't hurt himself. "We'll plan in the morning."

 _AN: I'd like an Owen of my own, please._

 _Review! And also, I love you guys! You are the best ever. A new chapter shall be up tomorrow, July 8_ _th_ _!_


	21. Whistle

_AN: We have reached chapter 21 and hello to the rising action phase of the plot! Also, I know I've been beating Owen up pretty badly…but no worries! He's sturdy._

Claire woke up to Owen covering her face in small kisses, his eyes sparkling with happiness. The sunlight shone brightly above him, leaves fluttering off the trees that surrounded them. "What brought this on?" Claire asked lightly,her voice now returned to its full strength.

Owen smiled, his teeth cold against her cheek. "I've been awake for about an hour and couldn't keep my hands off you anymore."

Claire laughed, overjoyed that he seemed to be recovering from his recent injuries quickly. She captured his lips with hers, rolling around with him on the soft grass. He gasped softly in pain when she put a bit too much pressure on his thighs, shifting Claire slightly to the side.

"Where's Lowery?" Claire murmured, twisting her head around to try and find him.

Owen pulled her face back down to his. "He's still asleep."

"No, he isn't," complained Lowery, sitting up and rubbing his eyes in a disheveled sort of way. He observed Claire and Owen sleepily, slowly realizing what –and who- he was seeing. "Claire! Aren't you being held hostage?"

Claire laughed and mussed Owen's already-messy hair. "I was rescued in the night."

Owen raised his eyebrows. "You make us sound like a crazy romance novel."

Claire met his eyes. "We would make a crazy story, you know. These past few weeks, they've been…"

"Interesting," Lowery finished. "And I'm not even going to ask how you got her out of there, man."

"So," said Claire, turning to Lowery. "What happened to you?"

Lowery explained everything to her. Claire was a good audience, paying as much attention to Lowery as she would Jurassic World's highest stockholders. She knit her eyebrows when she heard about Hunt's apparent lack of concern for Jurassic World and Project K; she started brainstorming about ways to use that against him. Hunt had started off proud of InGen's technology, of what it could do to dinosaurs. Ever since Claire had flipped the switch on Alice, he'd been in a downward spiral, making rash decisions and abandoning his colleagues.

"Revenge," Claire said. "That's what this is about for Hunt. His raptor lost. She's dead; I killed her. So why didn't he show up to the tent last night after he was finished with you, Owen? I was right there. He could've gotten rid of me, no problem. Wu wouldn't have protested; I own this park now. Without me, he'd be next in line to run the place."

"Hunt's after something else," said Owen slowly, sitting up straight. He pushed himself up to standing, peering over the rocks that shielded them from the fields. "Come on. We gotta go."

Claire didn't ask questions and simply jumped to her feet, dragging Lowery behind her. Out of habit, she stepped where Owen did, knowing he'd find quietest spots to place his feet. Owen ran unsteadily on his sore legs, but Claire could tell he was feeling better than he had yesterday.

"Where are we going?" Lowery yelled, crashing loudly through the trees.

"Sh!" said Owen and Claire at the same time.

"Hunt's got a head start on us," Owen said, brushing past a large fern-like plant.

"You don't think-?" Claire broke off, grasping Owen's train of thought. _Crap._

"You don't think what?" asked Lowery, confused. He stumbled through a patch of weeds and successfully avoided tripping over a protruding root.

Neither Claire or Owen answered him, each too caught up in their worries to respond.

Hunt had gone rogue. He was obsessed with Claire because Owen loved her, but as far as he knew, Claire was safely tied up in his tent. What was the only other thing on Isla Nublar that Owen cared about that Hunt didn't have?

Blue.

…

"What do you mean, she's _gone_?" Hunt yelled into the walkie-talkie.

"You were supposed to be guarding her," replied Wu, calm as ever. His tone pissed Hunt off. Didn't Wu understand how important Claire was to Grady? "You said you would get rid of the Navy man, and get the girl. Now you've gone and messed everything up. You need to remember why you are here, Hunt."

Hunt slammed his fist into a nearby tree, feeling invigorated at the pain that now coursed through his body. "I know why I'm here. I'm going to kill Grady's velociraptor, kill Claire, and kill Grady himself."

"That is not why we hired you," Wu argued, serene as ever. "You are here to get rid of the old dinosaurs and prep the park for our new prototypes. You are supposed to give me a place to perfect my weapons for our buyer. I don't have much time left, Patrick."

"I don't care," said Hunt. "Grady _was_ out of the game, until you let _her_ escape. That Claire Josephine; she's a feisty one. If anyone can find Grady, she can. Now I'll have them after me, and I'm trying to figure out a way to sedate a hostile velociraptor long enough to eject a switch receptor into its brain. There isn't a microchip in this one, Wu. I'm on my own out here."

"So forget about it. Come back, search for the girl, and kill both her and her boyfriend."

"That's not good enough!" shouted Hunt. "I have to take away any shred of hope Grady has left before he dies. Anything he loves, I want."

"Why are you doing this?" asked Wu, with just a hint of anger in his voice. Hunt smiled with satisfaction; few things were better than pissing that stupid genius off.

"Because _I_ am the alpha," said Hunt. "He thinks he can beat me? No. _No_." Hunt pressed his hands to his temples, trying to force away a migraine. The headaches had been getting more frequent lately, especially after Alice had died. Hunt's jaw clenched at the memory; he relived his dinosaur's death every time he closed his eyes. Sure, he had hated the thing, but it was the closest thing he had to a friend, excluding Bridgette, who was so annoying most of the time that Hunt could barely stand her.

But Alice had died and here Hunt was, traipsing through the woods, knowing that Grady's closest, deadliest friend was wandering around here somewhere. "I'm going to prove that I'm stronger than him, Wu. He can't beat me."

"Beat you at what?"

"Everything." Hunt smashed the walkie-talkie against a rock, breaking the thing into bits of plastic and wire. He looked through the trees in front of him, where he could see the barest trace of a shadow, the smallest gleam of a yellow eye, poking through the thick leaves. "I know you can see me, Blue."

The eye blinked at him and Blue turned and ran away, screeching so loudly that whole flocks of birds flew rapidly from their nests in the trees. Hunt pulled out the thick syringe from his pack, examining the steel needle in the sunlight. "I'm gonna flip the switch on you." He sprinted after her, feeling like he finally had a reason to continue on with his scattered, personal mission.

…

Owen froze. "Did you hear that?" he asked Claire, trying to pinpoint the direction that the screech had come from. Claire nodded. Blue had to be nearby; Owen said she wouldn't stray too far away from him. Maybe she was simply chasing after her breakfast, and not running from Hunt.

"I still don't know what the heck is going on," said Lowery, coming up behind them. He bent over, trying to catch his breath. "What are we running from?"

"We aren't running from anything," Claire explained impatiently. "We have to find Blue."

"We're chasing a velociraptor?" Lowery asked incredulously. "When did we decide to do that?"

Owen set off again, fighting his way through the thick branches in his path. "She's running from something. That was a defensive noise."

"Okay," said Claire, hitting her bad leg painfully against a thorn-covered bush. "She'll kill him if he gets too close, won't she? Blue's the first dinosaur Hunt's ever come into contact with that he doesn't have any control over. He's overconfident. That'll be his downfall eventually. Where do we need to go to get to her before he does?"

Owen stopped, turning to face her. "I don't know. If I whistle for her and Hunt's near here, I'll be telling him exactly where we –and Blue- are, but I can't just leave her."

"So whistle for her," Claire said, pulling the bandages tighter around her still-bloody calf. "We'll run."

"And if Hunt chases us?"

Claire didn't answer Owen's question, instead taking a deep breath. She had an idea…sort of. It was a good one in theory, anyways. In real life? Crazy. Stupid. But it might also be insane enough to work.

"What are you thinking?" Owen asked. "You've got something floating around in your head."

"Fight," Claire said. "Old versus new."

"Do you think it'll work?" asked Owen, immediately understanding what Claire meant.

"I am so confused," said Lowery, looking from Owen to Claire, trying to decipher the unspoken words in their conversation.

"If we're smart about it. And if we don't die trying," said Claire. "We might end up killing half of Jurassic World's dinosaurs in the process, though."

" _What are you talking about_?" questioned Lowery, who was now pacing impatiently around them.

"Project K is all about 'replacing the old with the new', right?" said Claire in an attempt to fill Lowery in. He nodded, still looking utterly confused. "So we prove InGen wrong. We show them that the old dinosaurs don't need to be replaced. Hunt's falling apart at the seams; he's trying to break us down in every way he can, but he's too scattered. He doesn't have a clear sense of purpose anymore."

"If we put ourselves out there with an army," said Owen, "he wouldn't be able to stop himself from fighting us. He'd have to come after us."

"An army of what?" Lowery wondered aloud.

"Dinosaurs," said Claire, feeling the same tightness in her chest that she had felt when she got the idea to use the T-Rex to fight the Indominus. "Lure Hunt out of his mad quest to find Blue by gathering all of Jurassic World's dinosaurs."

"He'd fall for it," said Owen. "He wouldn't be able to resist pulling out InGen's robots to use against us. It would be the ultimate chance for him to prove himself."

"But what about Blue?" Lowery asked, still a little bewildered.

Owen sighed. "I hope both of you are ready to run, because he'll be after us the second I do this." He looked at both of them, making sure they knew what they were getting themselves into before he whistled loudly, the sound echoing all through the dense trees. Claire heard a yell of triumph float through the air: Hunt. "Come on," said Owen, grabbing Claire's hand. "We've got to go."

"And now we're running _from_ the velociraptor," said Lowery, stumbling along behind them. "This makes no sense."

 _AN: So, if most of you are like Lowery and have no clue what is happening, then I don't blame you! Let me explain._

 _-Hunt is after Blue because he's literally going insane_

 _-Owen has whistled for Blue, and she's coming for them with Hunt on her tail_

 _-Claire wants to gather the old dinosaurs because she knows that if they do, Hunt will gather all of InGen's dinosaurs to fight them-it's the best way to get him out in the open_

 _-Now Hunt knows where they are because Owen whistled for Blue, so that sucks_

 _-If you have any more questions, feel free to PM me or ask them in the review and I'll try my very best to answer them, because I know this is really confusing!_

 _Review!_


	22. Plan

_AN: So sorry last chapter was ridiculously confusing. Hopefully everything will be cleared up in this chapter! Also, I can't remember if the second Jeep got smashed in Jurassic World or not, but for this story, it's still there!_

Claire flinched when she heard the gunshot. It hit the tree beside her and bark flew everywhere, hitting her in the arms and face. Claire heard Blue screech from somewhere behind her. Hunt was catching up.

"I'm splitting!" yelled Lowery, running diagonally through the woods. "I'll try to do what you asked!" He sprinted off, away from the chase and towards the central part of Jurassic World.

"Building," muttered Owen. "We've got to find that stupid building."

"This path leads to it," said Claire, who was completely out of breath. She ran on anyways, ignoring the pain flaring up in her injured calf. It had started bleeding again; Claire could feel the warm liquid running down her leg, pooling in her sandals. Her foot was slipping all over the place, trying to keep itself in the shoe. "We'll hit it eventually."

"Good," gasped Owen, clutching at his thighs. "I can't keep this up for much longer."

"Me neither," said Claire, looking desperately through the trees in front of them. They were _almost there_. And there was an old Jeep in there, Claire remembered. If Zach and Gray could fix the first one, Owen could fix this one. Suddenly, she saw the old park building, looming in the distance and covered in ivy. It was barely noticeable, except for the gaping hole in its side where the Indominus had chased them away a few weeks ago. "There!"

They put on an extra burst of speed, hopping through the hole in the wall and collapsing against one of the old shelves in the garage. Old souvenirs were piled above them: an old helmet, several decrepit plush dinosaurs, and even a few old t-shirts like the one Lowery got from eBay.

"Here," said Owen, pulling Claire over to him. He pulled off the bandage tied around her calf and threw it in the corner, pouring some water from one of their water bottles over the messy gash. It was red and swollen, and Claire realized exactly how much it was hurting when she looked at it. Owen snatched one of the first aid kits from the shelf above him and dumped disinfectant on it, Claire covering her mouth so she wouldn't scream. He wrapped a fresh bandage tightly around her, securing the ends tightly.

"Thanks," said Claire, leg feeling much better already. "How long do you think we have?"

Owen sat silently for a minute, peering through the broken wall. "I give us five minutes, tops."

"Okay," said Claire. "What's the plan?"

"Tell him what we're going to do, get Blue away from the creep, and then tell him he has until tomorrow to gather his dinosaurs," Owen listed off.

"This will be a lot easier for him than us," said Claire. "But it's the best we're going to be able to come up with at the spur of a moment."

"Exactly," said Owen. "We have instinct on our side, and he has technology. We can do this, but we have to do it our way."

"We can prove InGen wrong," Claire agreed.

"Hopefully," Owen said. "We've got company."

Claire looked up just in time to see Blue crash through the wall, spraying bits of concrete and class everywhere, her eyes wild and her mouth wide open. Owen stood up, looking at her intently. She breathed heavily at him for a moment until Owen nodded slightly, and she turned around to face the outside, standing stiff as a board. She was waiting for Hunt.

Claire could hear him, tripping and cursing through the woods; he was getting close and Claire could feel herself growing nervous, unsure of how their talk was going to turn out. Last time they had attempted to speak with Hunt, Claire had punched him and Owen had gotten shocked. This time, Claire was determined to keep her hands to herself.

"You ready?" Owen asked. Claire nodded and he pulled her up; she put most of her weight on her uninjured leg, standing unevenly and leaning against Owen for support.

"A momentary truce," Claire said. "That's all this is. No fights until tomorrow night. We'll have a little over 24 hours to try and pull this off, Owen."

"Well," said Owen, gesturing to Blue. "We've got one."

"Just 19 more species to go," said Claire, gripping his shoulders. She was reassured by the strength she felt in him; despite all his injuries, Owen was strong. They could do this. Probably.

"Give up?" called Hunt from outside. Claire could see him poking around the ruins of the old building curiously, trying to figure out where they were. "I figured you might."

"Just calling a temporary truce," replied Owen, stepping forward to stand beside Blue. She visibly relaxed a little at his close proximity, glad to see her friend again.

Hunt laughed. "No such thing as a temporary truce, Grady. Either you fight, or you don't." He stepped through the hole, staying well out of range of Blue's claws. Claire could see him twirling a small clear package in his hand: a syringe with an extremely thick needle. "I'm gonna use this on that raptor eventually."

"No, you won't," said Owen. "We're going to fight, Hunt. But not until tomorrow night. You need time and we need time. A temporary truce."

"Okay," said Hunt, his eyes flitting around the old garage until they landed on Claire. "How's my favorite redhead doing? Long time, no see."

"Shut up," said Claire. Owen flashed her a thumbs-up behind his back and Claire had to stop herself from smiling. Owen loved it when she got feisty. "We're giving you thirty-six hours, Hunt."

"Thirty-six hours to do what?" he asked, stepping a bit too close to Blue. She lashed out, her claws glinting in the sunlight that streamed in the garage. Hunt leapt back just in time, avoiding being turned into human spaghetti by inches.

"To gather your dinosaurs. All of them," said Owen. "You guys say 'out with the old, in with the new?' We say keep it the way it is. These are dinosaurs. Stop trying to control them, to make them weapons. Let them live as animals should live."

"And what does gathering my dinosaurs have to do with any of that?" Hunt questioned, eyeing Claire.

She stepped forward to stand beside Owen. "We fight it out. End this the only way we can, because you and InGen won't stop until we're gone, and we aren't going anywhere anytime soon."

Hunt laughed so hard that tears came into his eyes. Blue took a step forward, hissing softly. Owen called her back, forcing her attention to him.

"You'll get him in a while," he said quietly, his green eyes boring into her yellow ones. She clicked her tongue impatiently but stopped hissing, looking down at Hunt with extreme dislike.

"So let me get this straight," said Hunt. "I have thirty-six hours to gather my assets, my very own easily-controlled army of dinosaurs, and then we fight your old, wild, distracted specimens. Do you understand how many experimental assets we have? You haven't seen the half of them. Sure, we have a few herbivores, but we've got a miniature Indominus Rex, which Claire Josephine is very familiar with, we have so many T-Rex hybrids that I've lost count of them all, and you want to _fight_ us? Oh, this is something I'm not going to miss."

"We figured you'd say that," said Owen, somehow managing to sound more confident than he had before, even after hearing about all of InGen's genetically modified dinosaurs.

"Your dinosaurs against our living weapons. You two are crazy."

"Says the psychopath who has been trying to kill us for a couple weeks now," said Claire, crossing her arms. Owen flashed her a smile at her words and Claire relaxed a little, remembering that, in the end, she'd have Owen, even if their plan did fail.

But hopefully, their plan wouldn't fail. Sometimes progress simply didn't win, like in the case of the first Indominus. If the natural dinosaurs could win once, they could win again. Claire said silent prayers that her hope would come true as Hunt stood there, trying to figure out if they were joking or not.

"You're serious about this?"

Owen and Claire nodded. Blue flicked her tail and knocked a rack of t-shirts off the shelf.

Hunt shrugged. "Your funeral. But know this: in this fight, the dinosaurs won't be what kills you, or your raptor. I'm coming after both of you myself, and this thing here," he held up the syringe, "will take care of Blue, over there. Watch out, Grady. You've dug yourself and your pretty little girl down into a deep hole, and you won't be climbing out."

Owen shrugged. "We'll see."

"Your funeral," Hunt said, turning away and walking off, heading for the Gyrosphere unit where Bridgette and Wu awaited him. Claire and Owen watched him go, Blue glanced at Owen, half-hoping he'd say she could go after him.

Claire waited until she could no longer see Hunt before saying anything. "Jeep?" she asked, looking at the old, broken-down machine behind them.

"Jeep," Owen said, popping the hood to see what he had to work with. "We've got to do this quickly, and I don't know if you should walk much on that leg."

Claire glanced down at her freshly bandaged calf. It still stung from the peroxide, and it made her slightly nervous that it hadn't scabbed completely over yet, but they didn't have time to do much else than keep it clean and tightly wrapped. They had dinosaurs to round up.

"What can I do to help?" she asked, looking at the engine. Owen grinned at her.

"Hand me that toolbox over there, please."

…

Lowery made it to the main control room successfully, only passing a baby gallimimus on his way.

Unfortunately, he could see some sense in Claire and Owen's crazy plan, even if it was extremely risky and terrifying and ridiculous at the same time. And he had the easy job, anyways: go back to the control room and call Wu. All the computers were still down, but there was an old-fashioned landline phone on the wall, and Wu's cellphone number was bound to be in the lab somewhere. All Lowery had to do was try to rationalize with the guy, give him a chance to back out of the fight before it began, on one condition: he gives up the name of the buyer.

Lowery wasn't sure he could get Wu to do it; the guy was a little unsettling. But he wasn't irrational like Hunt, and he didn't have a weird desire to kill everything he saw, so Lowery figured he'd be safe calling him.

Wu picked up the phone on the first ring, and Lowery took no time explaining the plan to him.

Wu only laughed, his voice a calm, smooth monotone. "If you must fight, then get on with it. I'll get Jurassic World eventually. Then you people will see what you missed when you said 'no' to some of my more…adventurous experiments. I suppose I will see you tomorrow night, but I must warn you. Our dinosaurs are advanced beyond anything you've ever seen. Watch out."

 _AN: And so it begins._

 _Review!_


	23. Surprise

_AN: I go to the beach in two days! TWO DAYS! I'm so excited that I actually can't breath._

"How much time do we have left?" Owen called, trying his best to force a stegosaurus into the emergency containment unit right beside Paddock Nine.

Claire glanced at Owen's watch, which she was now wearing on her arm so she could monitor the time. It was too big for Claire; she had it pushed up nearly to her elbow. "Two hours," she said, tapping her foot nervously on the ground. Two hours left, and they were still missing the T-Rex.

"She'll come," said Owen, slamming shut the gate to the emergency containment unit. The stegosaurus glared angrily at him from inside. "All these warm bodies gathered in one place like this is bound to attract her."

"I hope so," said Claire, surveying their work. The main pavilion was now crowded by small herbivores, contained by ACU's portable but sturdy electric fences. Blue was safely caged inside Paddock Nine, clearly sensing something huge was going to happen. She hadn't moved an inch in the six hours she'd been contained. She'd simply stood, staring at Owen through the bars, just waiting.

Claire had been keeping an overly-observant eye on the clock as they slowly ran out of time, marking off each and every dinosaur they had rounded up on the neat checklist she had sitting on her lap. Organization at its finest.

"Two hours," Owen repeated. "Are you ready?"

"No," answered Claire truthfully. How was she supposed to be ready for a dinosaur fight? "Is this completely insane?"

Owen laughed and walked to stand beside her, taking the checklist out of her hands. "Yeah, it is. But I don't see a way out of it. InGen, Wu, Hunt, and everybody else involved, needs to see that progress isn't always the answer. Instinct – _life_ \- has to win here. Not technology. Or weaponry. Whatever these dinosaurs are."

"I know," said Claire, leaning into Owen. He looked better than he had in days; the aftershock of the electric spear was finally starting to wear off of him, although his legs still looked pretty bad. "We're going to have to build Jurassic World from the bottom up if we survive this." Claire hadn't even begun to think about the aftermath of InGen's attempted takeover. If they survived, how was she supposed to fix any of this?

Owen kissed the top of her head gently, effectively easing Claire's worries. "You won't be in it alone, Claire. I'm not leaving you."

"Good," said Claire. "I've gotten used to having you around."

Owen smiled, but there was a ghost of worry on his face. "Claire-"

Claire interrupted him. "I'm staying with you out there. I don't care how dangerous it gets. We're sticking together."

"I knew you were going to say that," said Owen, squeezing her hand affectionately. "Which is why I was going to give you this, just in case you end up needing it." He walked over to the old Jeep they had managed to repair, and pulled out a sharp, lethal shock-prod from the backseat. "One of ACU's more dangerous weapons."

Claire took it, testing its weight in her arms.

"It won't kill anything larger than a raptor, but it'll take care of anything smaller," Owen explained, observing Claire. "That's the only one of those I could find. The rest were wiped out by the first Indominus Rex."

Claire met Owen's eyes. "We're really going to do this?"

"Too late to back down now."

…

They waited in the waning sunlight for two hours. Dusk was just beginning to set in when Claire saw a small shadow moving towards them in the distance: Hunt. She frowned, wishing the T-Rex had shown up before Hunt had; excluding Blue, the pterosaurs, and the Mosasaurus, the T-Rex was the only other predator that Jurassic World had next.

They had strategically staged the site of the battle very close to the Mosasaur's pool; Owen had suggested herding some of Hunt's smaller dinosaurs into the water. The Mosasaur could take care of them, no problem, and Claire and Owen would be free to worry about bigger and better things. Like the Indominus Rex, for instance. Claire couldn't see it yet, but she knew it was coming.

Hunt's shadow loomed closer. Claire could see him, smirking proudly and running the flat of his knife along his pants. The blade glinted in the setting sun.

"I sharpened this," Hunt shouted. Claire felt Owen flinch beside her and knew he was remembering the feel of the knife cutting into his skin. "Much better for throwing with."

"Great," Owen muttered. "Don't let him get too close to you."

"Yeah," agreed Claire, eyeing the blade.

"So this is your big army," said Hunt, close enough now that Claire could fully see the horrible sneer on his face. "Am I supposed to be scared of a baby archaeornithom…I can't even _say_ that."

Owen snickered quietly. Clare knew he was remembering their conversation several weeks prior: ' _You should hear a four-year-old try to say archaeornithomimus'_.

"Claire Josephine! Haven't seen you in a day and a half. You look terrible. Get some sleep. Or take off your shirt, whichever you prefer."

Owen's hand tightened protectively around Claire's. "Enough. Where are Wu and Bridgette?"

Hunt rolled his eyes. "They're behind the pack, making sure we didn't leave any asset behind."

"That sounds like a bad political ad," said Owen under his breath. " _No asset left behind_."

They stood quietly for a moment, each side taking the other in. Claire would have been scared but for Owen, standing strong and steady beside her. "Thank you," she whispered, knowing he would hear.

"For what?"

Claire stood up on her tiptoes and kissed him, because that was the only way she could think of to answer his question. His lips molded to hers instantly, both of them falling into their habit of forgetting where they were and who they in front of when they kissed.

Claire wasn't sure if they'd ever have broken apart, except for the roar she recognized at the T-Rex's, echoing through the pavilion.

"We got her," said Owen triumphantly, his face flushed. He looked behind them, where the T-Rex towered over the small herbivores, glaring down at them all like they were going to be its dinner. It didn't attack, however, zeroing in on something behind Hunt as the bigger prey.

"You have one," said Hunt, a weirdly triumphant expression on his face. "We have five."

Claire whipped her head around to see what the T-Rex was focusing on and felt her knees go weak. The Indominus Rex was standing far behind Hunt, its huge body silhouetted by the red sunlight. Four other giant dinosaurs were beside it, teeth bared and eyes narrowed. They all resembled the T-Rex in size and stature, but Claire could see hints of other dinosaurs mixed in; each of them were a whole new breed of terror.

Velociraptors, small and narrow like Alice but far less abused, were scurrying along under the T-Rex hybrids' feet, moving quicker than Claire had ever seen Blue move. Claire spotted the Indominus mini glaring at her, its side scarred from where she had shocked it several days ago.

Claire turned to look at the dinosaurs gathered behind them. Each and every little herbivore in the fence, all the bigger, better-armed herbivores in the emergency containment unit, the T-Rex, focusing on nothing but its relatives standing behind Hunt. Owen pressed the button on his walkie-talkie twice, signaling Lowery that it was time to open Paddock Nine and the emergency containment unit. Blue leapt out, gravel and bark flying in her wake. She snarled at Hunt, snapping her teeth ferociously. The stegosaurs, triceratops, ankylosaurs, and other various armored herbivores lumbered out of the emergency containment unit, looking balefully at the army before them.

Hunt twirled his now-sharp knife between his fingers. "You said you wanted to prove that the old could beat the new? Take a look, Grady. These things will tear you apart because we're going to _make_ them. They won't do anything that we don't make them do. And the ones I'm going to be controlling? They're coming for you. Let's go!" he yelled, running back towards his dinosaurs. Claire could see Wu and Bridgette, hastily setting up a control center. Hunt rushed over to help them, a look of pure joy on his face. Claire supposed that he lived for moments like this: getting to see the people he hated taken down by things he controlled.

"Our plan will work," said Owen. "Divert the raptors to the Mosasaur pool. Let it take care of them. We can't have twenty velociraptor hybrids running around our feet when we have other things to run from."

Claire nodded, too nervous to say anything.

"Guys?" came Lowery's voice over the walkie-talkie. "Are you seeing this?"

"Quite clearly," said Claire, her voice a tiny squeak.

"Just checking," said Lowery. "I-. Yeah. I'm here. In the control room."

"Thanks," said Owen.

"Yep," said Lowery.

"Owen," said Claire, tugging on his shirtsleeve. "They're coming."

And coming they were. Every single one of InGen's robots were charging towards Claire and Owen, the ground shaking from the weight. It was a sea of reptiles rolling down the hill, eyes flashing and claws extended.

"Blue," yelled Owen, running towards the Mosasaur's pool. The T-Rex roared and charged the robots just as the sun set, leaving everything illuminated in the powerful LED lamps set up all around the pavilion. Claire could see Hunt twirling a joystick and looking happier than she'd ever seen him.

"Jump out of the way the second they get near us," Owen reminded Claire. That was their hastily thought-of plan. Use themselves as bait for the raptors, and then move as best (and as fast) as they could so hopefully, Hunt or Wu or whoever was controlling them wouldn't be able to change their direction before the raptors could fall into the Mosasaur's pool.

So far, their plan was working. The raptors were headed straight for them, moving much faster than the five giant hybrids behind them.

"I love you," Claire said in a strangled whisper.

"I love you too," said Owen, his voice low.

"They're getting close." Claire could see the raptors' teeth. Blue could too; she was practically hopping in anticipation.

"Not yet," Owen said. "Give it a minute."

"Owen!"

"Go!" he shouted, jumping sideways and pulling Claire with him just in time to see all the raptors smash straight through the glass and into the Mosasaur's pool. Blue screeched in triumph and Claire managed a shaky laugh before she realized something was wrong.

The Mosasaurus didn't shoot through the top of the water like it always did. "Where is it?" asked Claire, a feeling of horror rising in her chest.

Suddenly the water swirled around violently, sloshing out of the pool and drenching Claire and Owen from head to foot. The raptors were forced out of the tank in a huge wave of water, not a scale on them harmed.

"What?" Claire whispered, shivering all over from the cold water. The Mosasaur's huge body floated to the center, acrid smoke spiraling above its head from where it had just been shocked.

"Surprise! That one was ours, too!" yelled Hunt, holding up a purple switch with the word _Mosasaur_ written underneath it. "You didn't think we'd let you have the biggest predator in the park, did you?"

Claire looked at Owen, both of them soaked with water. Twenty velociraptors surrounded them, forcing them up against the broken glass wall of the tank that was still leaking water everywhere.

Claire saw, on the hill, the T-Rex grappling with the five giant hybrids; it was at the center of a losing battle. Their herbivores milled around in the fences aimlessly, taking no notice of the battle surrounding them.

Their plan had failed.

 _AN: Um, I love you guys. This cliffhanger is not proof of that love, but I do indeed love you. Promise._

 _Review! And no worries, I'll have a new chapter up tomorrow. Actually, it'll be up at about 5:30 in the morning, my time, because I'M GOING TO THE BEACH! So you'll have your next chapter three hours early. That can be the proof that I love you._


	24. Death

_AN: JAMES GUNN FAVORITED MY TWEET. I REPEAT: JAMES GUNN FAVORITED MY TWEET (for those of you who don't share my obsession with Guardians of the Galaxy, he's the director!) Here you are! Chapter 24!_

The pterosaurs saved them.

Claire heard the first screech just as one of the raptors lashed out at Blue, taking a chunk out of her tail with its claw. Owen had shot that raptor and it fell dead beside its siblings, who hissed at Owen angrily. He cocked his gun again, taking aim at another one, but Claire knew he couldn't kill them all. She whipped out her electric spear but didn't activate it; the thing was only good for one shock, and she didn't want to waste it.

The raptor closest to Claire snapped at her, slashing its claws straight through the bandage on her calf, reopening the partially healed wound. Claire gulped back a scream and Owen's gun went off; the raptor fell dead on top of her.

Claire heard another screech, muffled by the raptor's body. She couldn't see what was happening and struggled to push the carcass off her. Another screech, this time sounding impossibly close.

" _Yes_ ," Owen said, shoving the raptor's body off of Claire. She was covered in its blood, her own blood, and water from the Mosasaur's tank, but she could see the flock of pterosaurs in the sky, dive-bombing the things closest to them, which just so happened to be the velociraptors. "Run," Owen yelled, getting to his feet. Claire tried, but she couldn't make her injured leg move. Owen picked her up, carrying her like he would a child and ran for shelter, which turned out to be the very stegosaurus that he had wrestled into the emergency containment unit a few hours before.

Claire tried to shove away the dizziness that was making Owen look like he was swirling around her head. She could feel him hastily bandaging her leg tightly; almost too tightly, but Claire knew he wanted to keep her from losing too much blood.

"Where's Hunt?" Claire asked, shutting her eyes. She could hear him shouting angrily, mad that the pterosaurs were wreaking so much havoc amongst his velociraptors.

"KILL THEM! _KILL THEM!_ "

"Still with Wu and the blonde. Thank God for those pterosaurs. Are you ready for the second part of this plan?"

"What about the raptors?" Claire asked, opening her eyes to a world that was still spinning slightly. They were surrounded by huge, tame herbivores. Her leg stung so badly that she almost couldn't concentrate on anything but the pain, but she forced herself to focus on the battle.

"Dead," Owen said, pointing to the carnage beside the Mosasaur's tank. The pterosaurs had moved on, attacking the bigger, scarier T-Rex hybrids up on the hill. The T-Rex itself was lying on the grass, blood dripping from its body. Claire could see its tail moving forlornly, but at least it was still alive.

"And Blue?"

Blue hissed in response from somewhere behind Claire. The stegosaurus grunted nervously, but didn't move.

"Step two," Claire said, taking Owen's hand. He helped her up and she wrapped her arm around his shoulder, leaning awkwardly against him. "Hunt."

"Come on," Owen said. "Blue!" he whistled sharply, getting her attention in an instant. They made their way around the pavilion, ducking behind various dinosaurs to keep themselves concealed. Blue occasionally scratched at one or two, just to remind them that she was boss.

Claire heard a furious roar and poked her head above a triceratops just in time to see one of the T-Rex hybrids crash to the ground, dead from the pterosaurs' sharp beaks. The T-Rex itself was struggling to its feet, using its tail as leverage to shift its massive weight. Hunt was still standing beside Wu and Bridgette, smashing various remote controls with his bare hands in anger.

"Hunt's mad," Claire said, ducking back behind the triceratops. She heard another massive crash and prayed that it was one of Hunt's hybrids and not the T-Rex.

"GRADY!" Hunt screamed. "Show yourself!"

"Stay low until we get closer," Owen said, and they resumed their path, keeping behind anything that would shield them from view.

Slowly they got closer to Hunt. Eventually there were no more dinosaurs to hide behind and they were forced out into the open, circling wide around the battle to avoid getting trampled by a two-ton predator.

"I see you!" yelled Hunt, running towards them with a remote control in his hand. Out of the corner of her eye, Claire saw the Indominus mini break away from the hybrids that surrounded the T-Rex, which had successfully stood up, blood streaming out of deep claw marks gouged in its side.

"Go, Blue!" said Owen, reaching his arm around Claire's shoulder so they could move faster; her injured leg was slowing them down. Blue ran ahead with an elated screech, bypassing the Indominus mini that was charging towards her and jumping straight at Hunt, who whipped out his knife and pointed the blade at Blue. Blue swiped at him experimentally, jumping back when he slid the knife across her skin. Owen would've helped, but his attention was forced away from Blue by the Indominus Mini, who slid smoothly in front of them, blocking Hunt and Blue from view.

It roared at them, an exact copy in miniature of its much bigger sibling. "I've fought this thing before," said Claire. "I know how it attacks."

Owen tried to push Claire behind him, but she ducked under his arm and stood beside him with her spear in her hand, ignoring the pain shooting through her leg. He shook his head slightly but didn't say anything, silently grateful for her help.

"It's weak!" yelled Claire, noticing that the dinosaur was moving awkwardly and some of its dark green scales had flaked off where Claire had shocked it some days prior. Its eyes had an unfocused, dreamy look to them.

Owen nodded and jumped over the raptor-sized Indominus's tail, smacking its head with the butt of his gun as he went. It hissed angrily, stomping its feet. Claire stabbed it with her inactivated spear, knowing that she had to save the shock for when it was most needed. Owen shot at it but missed, the bullet skiving off of one of the sharp spikes on its back.

"I can't get a clear shot," he grunted, dropping to the ground to avoid getting shredded by the mini Indominus's claws. He rolled over, springing to his feet and taking aim again.

Claire was distracted by Owen's close call, realizing her mistake when the Indominus mini swung its tail around, slamming her in the back and knocking her flat on her face. She tried to roll over but felt the sharp tips of its claws digging into her back, its weight smashing her into the ground.

"Owen!" she screamed, struggling and kicking at the dinosaur as best she could. She heard a gunshot and felt the dinosaur's weight shift; it staggered off of her, screeching loudly in pain. Claire rolled away, clutching the spear in her hand. She stopped herself with her good leg, kneeling down and shaking her spear sharply, feeling the crackle of electricity shoot through it. The Indominus mini looked at Claire with its cloudy eyes and charged towards her, its neck bleeding from Owen's bullet. Claire shoved her spear forward with a hair-raising scream, plunging the electric tip straight into the reptile's heart. It froze, twitching horribly as the electricity coursed through its body.

Claire let go of the spear, backing away from the dead dinosaur slowly and collapsing into Owen's sweat-drenched arms. She didn't realize she was crying until she heard Owen speaking quiet words of comfort in her ear, wiping her tears away with his calloused thumb.

"You killed it," he was saying, lifting her slightly off the ground so they could be eye-to-eye. "You killed it."

"I killed it," Claire said, shaking all over. "Where's Blue?"

Owen's face paled when he remembered that Blue was fighting with an armed maniac who would like nothing more than to kill her. Claire surveyed the carnage around them desperately, looking for the prominent cerulean streaks on Blue's back. "There!" she said, pointing to a spot a hundred yards in front of them, where Blue was scratching fiercely at a very bloody Patrick Hunt, who was fighting back determinedly with his knife.

Owen whipped out his knife and ran to Blue, his body taught and ready. Claire stood back, knowing that she was too shaky to be of much help. She watched anxiously, chewing on her fingernails and not caring a bit that her manicure would be completely ruined.

Owen and Blue fought together easily, each of them knowing what they other was going to do before they did it. They teamed up against Hunt, who was growing increasingly erratic with every swipe of his knife; he was falling apart, and his remote-control dinosaurs couldn't save him; he couldn't control something and fight at the same time.

Owen lunged forward to block Hunt from slicing Blue's neck, their knives clanging together with a sharp noise that made Claire's hair stand on end. Blue took advantage of Hunt's position, raking her claws against his unprotected stomach. Hunt staggered in pain, but didn't lower his knife, pressing even harder against Owen, trying to force his blade into Owen's face. Claire could see Owen's arms shaking with exertion and tried to run forward and help but fell, her calf bleeding all over the place where one of the raptors had reopened the cut.

"Blue," said Owen in a strained voice. Blue blinked once and some sort of silent understanding passed between her and Owen and she took a step back, allowing Owen to finish this battle on his own. She paced circles around them, hissing whenever she passed Hunt, reminding him that Owen wasn't alone.

Owen took a step forward to gain more leverage. Blood streamed down Hunt's body from Blue's claw marks and a greenish hue was beginning to come over his face.

"You're dying," said Owen, looking sadly at Hunt. "You can't win."

"I can," said Hunt, shoving his knife blade down so forcefully that Owen was barely able to stop it, inches above his face. "I'm _better_ than you. I can win."

"Owen," said Claire weakly, reaching out to him even though he was too far away for her to touch.

"It's not about that," Owen said. "Look at this. Look at everything you've done here, that InGen's done here. Has it made life any better? Has Project K benefited anyone?"

"I don't care about that," said Hunt, his voice almost a whisper. Claire could see his knees shaking. "I was in charge of all those robots. I could _control_ them. I was in charge, Owen!"

"Power isn't the answer," Owen grunted. "Life is the answer."

"Life," groaned Hunt, twisting his blade around so quickly that Claire barely saw it. Owen ducked just as Hunt threw the knife but it clipped his arm on the way down, leaving a trail of blood in its wake.

Blue didn't hesitate this time and Owen didn't try to stop her. He merely pulled himself out of the way, looking at Claire as his velociraptor killed the man that had been hunting them for so long, that had caused so much terror and fear and had tried to take Jurassic World for himself.

Claire crawled toward Owen, her leg now hurting more than ever.

Hunt was dead.

It was over.

 _AN: Or is it? Don't forget that there's still a massive dinosaur battle going on and good old Dr. Wu is still around somewhere. See you tomorrow!_

 _Review!_


	25. Talk

_AN: LAST CHAPTER! Well, sort of. Tomorrow you'll get the epilogue and Tuesday you'll get all my notes on this (seriously. I have like nine pages worth of plans), so if you're a complete writing nut, I think you'll enjoy that. Thanks for sticking around the past month, guys. I've been writing like crazy and it's been a heck of a lot of fun._

Claire sat with her head buried in the crook of Owen's neck as Blue mangled Hunt's body. She couldn't see what Blue was doing, but hearing it was just as bad. She could feel Owen's fingers brushing lightly across her back, trying to comfort her as he watched Blue.

"Blue," Owen said, his voice quiet but commanding. "That's enough."

Blue clicked her tongue at Owen and Claire heard the unmistakable sound of claws against flesh.

"Blue," Owen repeated. "He's dead. Leave him be."

Blue growled, a low sound that would've scared Claire out of her mind if Owen hadn't have curled his arms tightly around her, his fingers resting on either side of her waist.

"Come on," said Owen, and Claire heard Blue take a few cautious, slow steps toward them. "That's it. Get over here."

Claire felt Owen's body relax and knew that Blue must have moved to stand beside them. "We're safe?" she whispered, her voice muffled against his skin.

Owen ran his hands through Claire's sweaty hair. "We're safe. Just one more person to confront, and this whole thing will be over."

Claire laughed shakily, not sure if she was relieved or terrified that they had won.

She looked up over Owen's shoulder, startled by what she saw. The sky was pitch-black but the massive lights placed around the pavilion gave the illusion that it was midday. The T-Rex was still fighting it out with help from the pterosaurs, and even a few stegosaurs had joined in. Claire saw a baby triceratops charging one of InGen's smaller, less-lethal dinosaurs. She smiled slightly, her face lighting up in pride. Their dinosaurs were winning an impossible battle. Instinct over technology.

"Where's Wu?" Claire asked, searching for him in the darkness. "I can't see him."

"He'll come," Owen assured her. "And then all Hell will break loose."

…

Wu came to them just like Owen said, for which Claire was thankful because neither she nor Owen could walk. They simply sat huddled up beside Hunt's almost unrecognizable body with Blue standing strong above them, Hunt's blood dripping out of her mouth. Owen was stroking Blue's flank gently, letting her know she had done what he needed her to do.

For once, Wu wasn't perfectly calm and composed and that gave Claire a weird sense of accomplishment. Finally, _finally_ , he saw the sheer power of the animals he had brought back to life. They were more than sequences of DNA: they were actual, living animals.

"You," he said, pointing a shaking finger at the three of them. "Hunt. Dead. _Velociraptor_."

Blue snarled at him and glanced down at Owen, silently asking if she needed to kill him, too.

"He's fine, Blue." Owen said, looking up at Wu with narrowed eyes. Blue turned an impatient circle, obviously thinking that Wu was _not_ fine.

Wu watched the exchange between Blue and Owen curiously, like he was trying to figure out a math equation to explain their relationship.

"Guys?" the voice floated out from nowhere and Claire instinctively flinched, almost smacking Owen in the face. "Are you okay?"

It took Owen and Claire a moment to figure out that the voice belonged to Lowery, and it was coming from the forgotten walkie-talkie Owen had shoved in his back pocket.

Claire pulled it out. "We're-" she broke off, unsure of what to say, "alive."

"Good, because I heard some screaming over this thing, and I wasn't sure what was happening, and I'm pretty sure that all our tech is coming online-".

"Lowery!" Claire said, snapping her fingers over the walkie-talkie. "Not the time."

Wu looked at her bemusedly and Blue hissed at him, reminding him that she could kill him if he made one wrong move. Wu hastily took a step back, holding up his hands in a gesture of surrender. "I've never been this close to a full-grown velociraptor before. I remember when she was born; she burst out of her shell so hard that fragments flew all across the lab."

"I was there," said Owen tiredly.

"And you've stuck with her ever since," said Wu.

"Hunt's dead," said Owen, breaking off Wu's distracted rambles. "Project K is over, Wu. Call off your dinosaurs."

"You never gave up on your raptors, even though they could've killed you," said Wu. "If I asked you to give them up, would you?"

"There are no _them_ , anymore, Dr. Wu. It's just Blue and me. And I'm not intending on selling her as a weapon; she's a friend."

Wu took a deep breath and pulled out a small black remote control with a solitary purple switch on it. Written on the back were the words: _Project K: Emergency Shutdown_. It looked exactly like the one Claire had used to kill Alice, but Claire assumed it was for all the dinosaurs, just in case something (like a massive battle) happened.

"We don't have to give this up, you know," said Wu, staring intently at the remote in his hand. "The possibilities I've created here…just think about what we could _do_ with these dinosaurs. Think about how much money we could make, how much fame we could have."

"Think about how you're forcing animals to become weapons. Think about how you've taken their lives away and turned flesh into technology," said Claire, gesturing to the various dinosaurs in the pavilion, still fighting it out. Claire saw the T-Rex, somehow still alive, wrestling with the last remaining hybrid; all the other hybrids had been taken out by the pterosaurs.

"I have a buyer," Wu argued. "As you know, he came to me with this idea and I developed these assets, created these creatures-"

" _Parasitosaurs_ ," interrupted Lowery, his voice crackling through the walkie-talkie.

Wu rolled his eyes. "Claire, Jurassic World is over. The Indominus Rex destroyed you, and Project K could build this place up again as a high-tech weapon facility. We'd be the most in-demand company in the world."

"I don't care," said Claire. "We didn't bring dinosaurs back to cause mass terror."

"Right," said Wu sarcastically. "We brought them off to showcase them in an amusement park, because that's _so_ much better."

"It is, actually," said Claire. "Giving people the chance to see something that existed before they did? That's powerful."

"No it isn't," said Wu, his frustration evident in his tone. He pointed to a tree that grew near them, leaves glistening in the moonlight. "That tree existed before I did. That means nothing. Life is a cycle, Claire."

"What does life being a cycle have to do with Project K?" Claire asked, shifting her wounded leg slightly. Owen glanced at her in concern but Claire shook her head. Tending to her leg could wait.

"Give it up," said Owen. "End it. Flip the switch."

"Did you ever figure out what the K in Project K stood for?" asked Wu, turning the remote over in his hand. When Claire and Owen shook their heads, he smiled serenely. " _Project: Kill_."

Claire wondered vaguely if the kill was referring to the shock-switches that were planted in InGen's dinosaurs or the fact that InGen intended to use the dinosaurs to kill people.

"Flip the switch," said Owen again. Wu glanced back down at his flesh-robots, a strange fire in his eyes. Blue took a threatening step forward and he leapt back like a scared cat, never having faced any of his dinosaurs when they were fully-grown.

"I made this," he said in a defeated tone. "I made _her_." He pointed to Blue, who snapped her teeth at him, clearly disapproving of Wu's involvement in her life. "You're asking me to destroy it?"

"You already destroyed it when you agreed to work on that stupid project for money," said Claire. "Flip the switch. End this."

Wu took a deep breath and took one final glance into the pavilion, observing his specimens for the last time. He slowly pressed the purple switch on the remote control, squeezing his eyes shut as he did so. Claire heard Bridgette's shout of disagreement echo across the pavilion before seeing InGen's entire army of dinosaurs drop like giant flies, the earth quaking as each one fell. The T-Rex roared tiredly and set off in the direction of Paddock Nine, ready to finally return home after several weeks' adventure. The pterosaurs circled up in a massive dinosaur tornado, swirling around and screeching loudly. They flew away over the forest, heading towards the broken aviary.

"In with the new, out with the old," Wu muttered, flinging the remote to the ground. It smashed into tiny pieces, black plastic flying everywhere.

"We told you," said Owen. "The 'old' are good enough. Forget about the new and let these animals do what they do best: live."

"Jurassic World will fail without me," warned Wu. "You'll never get this park up and running again."

"Yes, we will," said Claire. "Life finds a way."

"Take _that_ , you scary science guy," yelled Lowery, whooping in triumph. He started to sing a victory song that sounded suspiciously like _We are the Champions_. His words sounded loud and clear through the walkie-talkie. Claire and Owen couldn't help themselves, bursting into laughter as they pictured Lowery dancing across the control room, thankful that InGen was finally beaten.

 _AN: I know this is a bit shorter (sorry), but I'm currently writing this on the road and I really wanted to end it with that "Life finds a way" quote, so here you have chapter 25! The epilogue will be up tomorrow._

 _Also, for those who asked, my tweet was about me always jogging to Awesome Mix Vol. 1 from Guardians of the Galaxy, and James Gunn was super awesome and chose to favorite it._

 _Review!_


	26. Survival

_AN: Epilogue! Yay!_

Claire took a long look at herself in the mirror. Her hair was longer than it was a year ago, curling softly down her back. Her bangs had grown out some; they were no longer neat and blunt, but relaxed and fell nicely over her forehead. Claire thought of her hair as a representation of how she'd changed since Jurassic World had been nearly destroyed. She was still the same old Claire, but she allowed herself to _feel_. She wasn't afraid to have a heart.

She straightened her skirt and slipped into her heels, feeling as if she could take on the world. Jurassic World, that was.

"Are you ready?" asked Owen, leaning against their bathroom doorway. He hadn't put on clothes yet, wearing only his boxers. Claire could see the jagged white line that ran the length of his chest, stretching all the way down to his right hip, merging into the small, uneven scars that decorated his thighs. The scars had faded somewhat over the past year, but they were still a reminder of what happened. Of what they had survived.

"Yes," said Claire in her best park manager voice. "Put on some clothes, or I might fire you."

Owen bit his lip, running his eyes slyly up and down Claire's body. "Something about you in business clothes…" he trailed off, mussing his hair with his hand.

"Don't get any ideas," said Claire, knowing very well that Owen already had _several_ ideas. "We have to be there in an hour."

"We live five minutes from the park," pleaded Owen, stepping closer to Claire. He shifted the collar of her shirt, uncovering just enough of her neck for him to nibble on.

"It's opening day," groaned Claire, involuntarily melting into him, allowing him to curve his strong body around hers. "What if something goes wrong, or a gate malfunctions…" she stopped and moaned softly; Owen had somehow managed to unbutton her shirt while she was talking. Claire could feel his stubble scraping against her chest as he kissed lower and lower, shoving her camisole away as he went. Claire gripped his shoulders, pushing him down to the waistband of her skirt. Owen chuckled against her hips, his laugh resonating through her body and crumbling her willpower. She pulled at her skirt, kicking it away with his help. "We have time," she decided.

Owen's grunt of approval reached her ears just before he tugged off her panties, pressing his lips against her and making her forget about anything that wasn't him.

…

Claire heard the whispers echo through the shiny new breezeway in the control building when she and Owen walked in. Their relationship had been a rumor for months, ever since they had exposed InGen and used the money won from the contract breach to rebuild Jurassic World, but nobody had been certain and both Claire and Owen had been careful to wear their rings on fine golden chains they kept tucked under their shirts.

They had decided to wear them uncovered today, each slipping the golden bands on the other's finger before leaving their apartment. Claire had wanted to, given that the park was opening and she had seen several of the younger female interns glancing curiously at Owen anytime he came out of the raptor paddock.

He had five raptors now. Blue and four new hatchlings that he was just beginning to work with. It had been hard at first, introducing Blue to new siblings, but Owen had successfully prevented her from eating them and that was all he could talk about. Claire loved it.

"And so the word will spread," said Lowery, appearing beside Claire with a cup of coffee in his hand. He glanced down at Claire's left hand, then at Owen's. "I feel like you should've told people you got married month ago, guys. People are going to care more about this than the park opening."

"They better not," said Claire, slipping her hand into Owen's. He smiled at her, his eyes still a bit unfocused from their activities earlier that morning. Claire flushed a bit when she thought of it, wondering what the interns would say if they knew their bosses had been fooling around an hour before the park opened.

"What's a good workplace without rumors anyway?" said Owen, flipping a piece of Claire's hair behind her ear. "And it's none of their business when we got married. That's why we've not told many people yet."

They passed a group of employees, all of who broke into excited whispers at the sight of Claire and Owen. Owen rolled his eyes and pulled Claire towards him, kissing her full on the lips in front of everyone, their rings flashing in the morning light. Claire heard gasps and giggles sound through the hallway, but she didn't care.

"They'll get over it," Owen said, smirking slightly at the half-bemused, half-wild look on Claire's face.

"You drive me crazy," she said pulling him down the hall, much to the disappointment of the watching employees. "I have a press conference at 8:15, then the ribbon cutting ceremony is at 9:00, and we should have a full park today; as of last night, 25,000 guests have bought tickets. I don't know how many more have been purchased this morning." Claire felt invigorated with the business of work: Jurassic World was back.

"You can handle this," said Owen, rubbing the slight tension out of her lower back. "This place is amazing, Claire. Simon would be proud."

Claire sighed. She and Owen had worked so hard to rebuild Jurassic World, giving themselves one year to get the money, finish the repairs, hire new scientists (as it turns out, Henry Wu was _not_ the only person in the world who could engineer dinosaurs), speak to the press, and simply fix the damage that had been done to Jurassic World's reputation. It had been hard, getting it done in a year, but there were no more companies subcontracted to Jurassic World; Claire didn't have to keep an eye on any of her high-level employees: she trusted every single one of them. Improvements had been made to all the dinosaur containment units, and Claire rejoiced in her newfound love of the dinosaurs. She now cared about her "assets", not only the park and the profits like she used to. Now, it was about the animals. Not the money.

Having Owen around through all of the repairs was amazing. Having him as her husband was even better. Claire had never loved anyone they way she loved him; she hadn't allowed anyone or anything past her "career woman" exterior in years and Owen broke straight through her boundaries so easily, without even trying. Claire saw him just as clearly as he saw her; he was so much more than the Navy veteran who trained velociraptors. He was strong and beautiful and cared so deeply about everything, even if it was hard to see at first.

She loved him. He loved her. Jurassic World was reopening for all to visit, and everything was running smoothly so far. The only thing that still nagged both Claire and Owen was the one name tat Wu wouldn't reveal, even though keeping that secret had earned him an extra five years in prison.

Who was the buyer that proposed Project K?

It was something that Claire had thought about constantly over the last year, and she still had no leads on who it could be. There had to be a record _somewhere_ , but Claire hadn't been able to find it.

So that was her next move. Uncovering any and every project that InGen had kept secret from the executives at Jurassic World. Any unauthorized experiment they had conducted, Claire aimed to uncover. And Claire would find that buyer. Whoever he or she was had almost cost Claire and Owen their lives, multiple times.

However, Claire could worry about the buyer later. Right now, she had to run a fully operational amusement park, but unlike last year, she wasn't alone.

Owen Grady was by her side, and they were sticking together. For survival.

 _AN: Remember how I said there wouldn't be a sequel? I lied. There's totally going to be a sequel! Let's figure out who that buyer is (I honestly have no idea. I'm working on that.) As soon as I get back from the beach (Saturday), you can expect a sequel to be up. Just look for anything by Journie 19! Oh, and my notes and plans and stuff for Survival will be up tomorrow morning._

 _Love you guys!_

 _Review!_


	27. Notes

_AN: Sequel in the works! It'll be called "Outlast". Here are my rough (seriously) notes for Survival; I just figured you guys might want to see them. Some things written down are abbreviated, some things didn't happen, some things that happened aren't in these notes, but I thought it would be cool to share the behind the scenes stuff._

Plans-Survival

 _Death_ : Blue kills Hunt and is about to kill Wu, who is terrified. Owen calls Blue off, but says, "stop this. Look. 'See' what you've created. (Wu sees all of InGen's Dinos) and flips all the kill switches. Bridgette watches blankly

 _Characters_ : Wu wants to sit on top of it all, the money and get praised for his genius. He doesn't want to run the park, he wants profit and praise. Hunt was originally supposed to run the park, but he's gotten so caught up in beating Owen in the most painful way possible that he no longer cares about Jurassic world. Bridgette just likes to play with her toys (the Dinos)

 _Ending_ : Wu wants to run all, Hunt just has the Dinos (he dies), Bridgette is okay but bloody, Wu is fine, Claire, Owen and Lowery are all good, K stands for kill, 10 was stupid

Owen: one last question.

Claire: who is the buyer?

Wu: sips hot tea and doesn't answer

End to epilogue

 _Project K_ : InGen has these microchips in the dinosaur's brains; all are clones, the Indominus is supposed to take them out but it is wrestling with its natural desires and what InGen is telling it to do. Hunt is the anti-Owen. Their ultimate goal is to take out Claire, Owen, and all the dinosaurs. The board is corrupt. Microchips can be injected and kill switch activated like THAT!

 _Climax_ : showdown between Hunt and his dinosaurs and Owen, Claire and their dinosaurs, the natural ones win, etc. Hunt is trying to inject a kill switch into Blue- Wu reveals- old vs new, Blue kills Hunt, Claire gets shot but is fine, happiness

 _Resolution_ : Claire owns Jurassic World and shuts InGen down and arrests Wu, but there are more scientists and such.

 _Epilogue_ : Claire and Owen cuteness, what happened to the park, etc.

 _Ch 1_ \- discover clone

 _Ch2_ \- control room/relationship development

 _Ch3_ \- discovery of betrayal of Zara, Wu, and what InGen has been up to, find out that all the trackers are offline with hacking software so advanced that Lowery can't get through it. They have no idea where any of their dinosaurs are

 _Ch4_ \- they start trying to contain the dinosaurs, prey first, so hopefully the Indominus clone will be lured to the paddocks so they could corner it. They see the Indominus at the raptor paddock, Owen gets slashed. CLIFFIE

 _Ch5_ \- Small Dino swings its tail at Indie, distracting it long enough for Claire to yank Owen to safety. Describe him a little. He tells her about the training pit, and they go there. He passes out, she stitches him up on her own and washes him, his clothes, etc. project K. She falls asleep. Claire-centric and her background. Take your time!

 _Ch6_ \- Still in pit, but he is awake. She explains, very relationship building. She cries. He laughs about being mostly naked, inspects his wound, makes sure she is okay, thanks her for saving him twice. Lots of his background, navy stories. Kiss?

 _Ch7_ \- What to do about him, keeping him healthy, see Hunt for the first time, Lowery relocates to an emergency computer in an outpost and Claire and Owen successfully shut a herd of pachys into the Gyrosphere unit. Ends with Owen thinking he sees Blue FAKE BLUE hunting Lowery project K- Owen's thoughts and Lowery's new info

 _Ch8_ \- real Blue, project K, fluff and dealing with PTSD. Cut to Patrick and Bridgette, they start following them, lowery manages to hack into the security feed (yay).

 _Ch9_ \- see evidence of predation from T-Rex, but no hint of the Indominus, Owen interacts with Blue some more, wake up from PTSD-Owen helps Claire- Lowery hacks into InGen security feed (they had none previously-old system-unaffected) and sees P and B. Owen and Claire start following P and B, trying to figure out what they're up to-short interlude in beginning about Blue- let's see if our raptor is stronger. Take off harnesses

 _Ch10_ \- overhear phone convo between Hunt and Wu about him getting the last, most important notebook- why can't we put micros in all of them, but we can do switches in them? Kill switches are for the sole purpose of killing- they always work. Shock. Micros are for control- they have to develop with the Dinos brain. 'In with the new, out with the old' (Wu) brief moment of panic as they're caught in a stampede, tagging the ones that aren't theirs so they can begin killing them off. Owen and Claire cuteness, Owen talks about how good she is for him, goooooooood kiss, Lowery humor.

 _Ch11_ \- back to c-room. background on Hunt from Owen, Lowery starts looking up Bridgette, and Claire calls Wu (bitter and unappreciated) They wait till Hunt and Bridgette are back in the park and break in to the control room, stealing the only thing left in: a list of all their Dinos. Now they know what they're facing -very plot-building and foreshadowing by Owen- this is going to end in a standoff- cut to P, who is totally abusing his raptor; Bridgette notices some of the micros are shorting out, the Dinos are resisting the technology- time to test the k in project k- stop harness to deal with micro problem- plan food run- relocate to main control room because P and B are in raptor paddock- they mention I Rex being in paddock 11- they aren't letting it out the open door- B's main job at moment

 _Ch13_ -start to wonder why Indie hasn't shown up in a while, shut T-Rex up in an emergency confinement cage adrenaline. Work together as a team, they're understanding one another better. Get contacted by P and B. Lowery throws in ultimate goal question, what is InGen's point (replacing old with new-unpredictable animals with predictable flesh robots) exhaust food supply. Cut to P- dealing with the problems, -explode their Dino- plan on how to stop them 'in movies, this is the part where they play the epic 'plan' music' tell Lowery their theory

 _Ch12_ -Owen and Claire go on a food run and take improv showers in the outdoor wash off thingy UM ALSO FIND LIST. Owen gets a shirt from his locker and THEY GO ON A DATE, dance to old music (GotG shoutout) and Lowery has third wheel jokes- primarily relationship building chapter- she teases him about getting scruffy and he shaves with stuff from his employee locker CHRISTMAS EVE

 _Ch14_ \- raptor showdown pt 1- they show up at P9 with Alice. Owen and Blue vs Hunt and Alice. -explain why Hunt hates them- mention their problems with micros

 _Ch15_ \- raptor showdown pt2- Blue kills Alice

 _Ch16_ \- Owen runs for Claire with Blue, Lowery is in some room keeping his eyes on everyone, Claire passes out and Owen helps her and Blue, nobody can figure out where Hunt is, figure out about the shock switches, Claire comforts Owen, really Owen and Blue time.

 _Ch17_ \- retrace steps to P9, lock Blue in the emergency containment unit under the building so Hunt won't find her, search for Lowery and try to locate Hunt, who is super mad and plotting his revenge (climax), cut to them, Wu is mad because Hunt has lost interest in Jurassic World; he wants to prove himself; mention Wu was controlling Indie mini, talk about weapons theory amongst both groups, InGen has a prospective buyer-military suspect guy. Mention math problems-what are they? Number 10? Some super awesome wonderful theory that you haven't come up with yet.

 _Ch18_ \- Owen and Claire are following the Indominus; Hunt is luring them to him; it's a trap- talk about the stuff from the last chapter- Hunt is on the warpath after Alice died; mad they found out about their tech and that his baby got killed cause he's a PSYCHO, good one-liners and such. Start beginning to wrap up, tie a bunch of loose ends, weapons weapons weapons-do they find something that clues them in? Description, indie's weird behavior, other stuff, buyer, what Hunt wants to do to Lowery,

 _Ch19_ \- hunt talks about Lowery-what is happening, his hatred and such, trap, weapons and introduction of Wu! Owen lets Blue run off because they realize that Hunt's trapped them and now they're all bound up and Hunt does torturous things to them while they question Wu to figure out the weapons theory

 _Ch20-_ REUNITED AND IT FEELS SO GOOD- Claire is scared cause Owen is pretty bad-they try to tend to each other- Hunt takes Owen back but they won't let them see Lowery (who is fine) and Claire screams bunches for him while talking to Wu- prove weapons theory- eventually Wu makes Hunt stop...Lowery has found Owen and he's doctoring himself and stuff, Hunt has gone in to taunt Claire, explains he's gonna leave Owen there all night; he knows he won't go anywhere, even if he could walk, Owen sneaks into the tent at night when everyone is asleep and him and Claire have an awesome cute moment

 _Ch21_ -recovery and small break- trying to figure out how to take them down. Hunt is furious at himself for letting Owen go, he doesn't care about Lowery, Wu threatens to kick him off the project, Owen and Lowery are trying to get him, prep for the ULTIMATE SHOWDOWN, talk about all Hunt's unfinished business-HUNT IS LOOKING FOR BLUE OMG

 _Ch22_ \- they are running, Lowery splits for control room- he can get video surveillance and possibly a message to Wu and Bridgette about what they're going to do. Wu says "if you must" and Bridgette is weirdly excited because she likes blood and death and stuff. Claire and Owen tell Hunt about their plan; he tells Owen that his knife blade is sharp now, PERF for throwing at Claire or Blue, who is barely holding back from getting Hunt, he says that he'll meet them on the battlefield, they try to encompass exactly what this means- what have they gotten themselves into?

 _Ch23_ \- showdown pt1-Claire is wounded badly and that causes suspense, doesn't get resolved for a while, Owen helps her.

 _Ch24_ \- showdown pt2

 _Ch25_ -resolution, Claire and Owen talking to Wu, Lowery in hospital, figuring out the extent of everything but still some adrenaline from the day before- start off running or something

 _Ch26_ \- epilogue, cuteness and relationship highlights

 _Ch27_ \- plans if they want to see them!

 _AN: And that's everything! By far my favorite chapter to write was chapter 20; I loved exploring the vulnerability of that chapter between Owen and Claire. Which was your favorite to read? Let me know in the reviews!_

 _Love you all! Look out for Outlast; it should be coming pretty soon._


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